Comparing the Economics of Advanced Gasification Technologies with Surface Gasifiers, UCG
Eric Redman, shareholder, Heller Ehrman
The Era of Coal Gasification has been widely heralded -- but slow to arrive. The delay in large-scale commercial deployment of "first generation" coal gasification technologies has created an unexpected opportunity for "advanced" gasification technology companies to emerge, get funded, demonstrate their technologies, and commercialize them. But who are the advanced gasification companies? With technologies ranging from catalytic synfuels processes to blast furnace and arc furnace and molten metal reactors, these companies and technologies are quite diverse. Even underground coal gasification exists, and should be ranked among the advanced technologies. Where do these companies stand with their technologies, in their funding, and in their commercialization efforts? Will they be delayed, and if so by the same factors that have delayed "first generation" gasification plants? Or are their challenges different? It is vital to find out, and this conference should greatly help. The advanced technologies offer the promise of lower cost, greater efficiency, higher availability, greater modularity, a wider range of commercial scales, good carbon management, and potentially rapid deployment. If so, the nation and the world need them. Perhaps we can give them a boost.

Calderon Gasification Process
Reina Calderon, vice president and general counsel, Calderon Energy
Calderon Energy Company will present on its gasification process to produce a hydrogen-rich syngas, with a hydrogen-to-CO ratio highly suitable for conversion to methanol (and methanol-to-gasoline) and lean gas for power generation. The Calderon Process is based in technologies practiced in the steel industry for gasification of coal (i.e. coking and blast furnace operations). Process advantages include reduced oxygen plant size, no coal pulverization, air-blown char gasification, the range of coal utilization available with the process, simple and dependable coal charging system, reduced capital cost, and high efficiency in converting coal to a syngas and a lean gas. The process is modular and is flexibly scaleable to large chemical or utility projects or industrial gasification projects. Advantages specific to the process from a GHG management perspective include the capability to produce a 2-H2 to 1CO syngas that does not require a shift reaction for methanolization, in addition to high efficiency in converting coal to a syngas and a lean gas (which also produces much less NOx when burned than natural gas). Other advantages include constructability, flexibility in operating configuration, ease of turn-down, and expected long life of refractory given blast furnace lining life experience.

BG&E Builds Largest US Wood Fired Power Generating Plant Using Advanced Gasification
Glenn Farris, chief executive officer, BG&E
Biomass Gas & Electric Co. LLC (BG&E) will use advanced gasification to build the largest US waste-wood-fired power generating plant on an undetermined Florida site. BG&E signed a 20-year power purchase agreement to provide Progress Energy Florida with 75 MW of electricity from an environmentally friendly plant to convert a wide range of woody biomass and wood wastes to power in an oxygen-free environment.
Glenn Farris, CEO of BG&E, will explain the renewable-energy company’s advanced technology that uses a two-step process that initially superheats wood biomass in an oxygen-free environment to produce a syngas to feed a turbine to generate electricity. Process heat captured in a second system uses the steam to run a generator and produce additional power. This highly efficient and extremely low-emission combined-cycle process offers a significant power production alternative that is cost-competitive and environmentally friendly.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist hailed the agreement by saying that the partnership is another example of the tremendous opportunities that are available in going green. Progress has a history of supporting innovative technologies and promoting cost-effective, cleaner energy sources. Jeff Lyash, president, CEO, Progress, said renewable energy sources play a vital role in the balanced approach to managing Florida's growing energy needs.
"The southeast is the most biomass-rich area of the US and any comprehensive plan for energy production should include renewable energy, and biomass must be an integral part of that plan," said Glenn Farris, president, CEO, BG&E. "It has been a pleasure to work with an industry leader such as Progress, providing clean and sustainable energy resources to assist with the state's future power needs."
This is the third contract for BG&E after agreements were signed with the city of Tallahassee, FL and Georgia Power Co. The two earlier plants each will use different advanced gasification technologies which Mr. Farris will also discuss.
BG&E is a 6-year-old Atlanta-based company managed by some of the most experienced personnel in biomass energy production and is recognized as a national leader in biomass power production.

Lunch

US DOE Funding Advanced Gasification Technology Research
Phillip Brown, president and chief executive officer, Diversified Energy
HydroMax®, an advanced gasification technology being developed by Diversified Energy Corp. (DEC) and licensed from Alchemix Corp., was selected by the US DOE from a pool of 1,318 applicants for research and technology transfer funding.
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I program is designed to provide funding for high-quality R&D on advanced concepts that are likely to lead to significant public benefit if the research is successful. DEC was selected for award under the coal gasification and combustion technologies topic area.
With wildly fluctuating natural gas prices, the industrial sector can realize substantial benefit from energy cost stabilization. However, current gasification technologies do not scale economically or are limited to certain feedstock types. With DOE funding, HydroMax® is expected to solve these problems to provide the industrial sector with a clean alternative.
Upon Phase-I completion, DEC can compete for a Phase II follow-on award. DEC teamed with CertainTeed Gypsum, one of North America's leading gypsum wallboard manufacturers for the project to reduce and stabilize natural gas costs. DEC will conduct tests, design activities, and commercialization planning focused on utilizing HydroMax® to gasify coal for the production of syngas for industrial applications.
Industrial companies such as CertainTeed Gypsum need gasification technologies that are smaller in size, have reasonable material handling capacities, and can produce clean energy at the desired cost with stability.
The US industrial sector is the largest gas user segment accounting for more than 6.6 tcf (~$47 billion) of natural gas in 2006. The project will expand upon previous test results by validating system performance across a broader range of coal types (e.g.,low rank coal) at a scale appropriate to substantiate growth to commercial volumes.
The HydroMax® technology is based on a molten-metals reactor approach. It offers several critical advantages for industrial customers, including scaling to the 5 - 100 MWe output range, a compact size for simple integration, hydrocarbon input flexibility, high reliability, substantive reductions in capital and O&M costs compared to traditional gasifiers, and high efficiencies. The DOE SBIR Phase I program allows for the next logical step in the evolution of the HydroMax® technology.

Plasma Gasification a Proven Technology
Rick Bower, vice president, engineering, Alter Nrg
Alter Nrg's subsidiary Westinghouse Plasma Corp. (WPC) has developed a plasma gasification reactor (PGR) that is capable of converting a wide variety of feedstocks including waste materials, coal and petroleum coke into valuable synthesis gas (syngas) and an environmentally benign slag.
An Alter Nrg representative will discuss how the WPC PGR accomplishes this by generating very high temperatures at the reactor's bottom to dramatically increase the kinetic rates of the various gasification reactions while also melting the inorganic constituents into a vitreous glass slag.
The WPC technology is based on a plasma cupola design - a cupola is a vertical shaft furnace that is conventionally used in the foundry industry within a harsh operating environment for the re-melting of scrap iron and steel. The ability to accept heterogeneous, unsorted or unsized feedstocks reduces the capital required for feed handling prior to gasification.
Plasma gasification presents significant environmental benefits over conventional thermal technologies due to its high carbon conversion efficiency and the concentrated syngas stream that is produced. The conversion rate of organic constituents into syngas exceeds 99%.
Due to the gasification reactor's high combustion temperature and the high exit gas temperature, there is virtually no reforming of combustion by-products to form organic compounds of environmental concern. Metals and non-combustible inorganics are melted and captured. The metals can be separated form the remainder of the liquid melt while slag is formed as an inert, glass-like amorphous residue. Particulate matter removed during syngas cleanup stages can either be recycled back to the PGR or injected into the slag melt.
As the concentrated syngas exits the gasifier, a variety of proven technologies are available to remove impurities or sequester compounds of interest. Emissions from facilities converting municipal solid waste (MSW) to energy will exceed the standards established by the most stringent regulatory framework in North America.
Plasma gasification will be particularly beneficial when generating power from coal or petcoke when compared to traditional power generating facilities. Emissions of nitrous oxides and sulphur dioxide will be an order of magnitude lower and CO2 can be captured and sequestered or used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects, when techniques for carbon sequestration are fully developed.
WPC is able to test, modify and validate their modeling assumptions using their plasma gasification pilot plant located at the Westinghouse Plasma Center in Madison County, PA. Over 100 pilot tests have been completed on a wide range of feedstocks. WPC has developed a plasma gasification simulation program which Alter Nrg is enhancing for design and modeling of gasification facilities.
There are currently two WPC plasma gasification systems in commercial operation, both of which are located in Japan. In addition, the WPC plasma torch system is used within a foundry environment in Ohio to melt machine borings and metal scrap to form new engine parts.

Break

The Future of Industrial and Commercial Gasification
Bill Douglas, senior vice president, business development, EPIC
Large-scale coal-gasification applications to generate power and to produce syngas as feedstock for liquid fuels and chemical products has been the focus of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. These applications typically are oxygen-blown gasification that requires an air separation unit (ASU) in the overall plant design. Recent developments in two-stage, fixed-bed, air-blown gasification systems make this approach very attractive for smaller-industrial scale applications where the inclusion of an ASU would drive the costs to uneconomic levels. These air-blown systems can now be used by small and medium-sized industrials. This session will focus on the advancement in industrial gasification and look at types of customers who would benefit as well as at a case study. Bill Douglas, senior VP of business development (EPIC) will be discussing the company's goal to make on-site, air-blown, coal-based gasification the alternative environmentally acceptable fuel of choice in the North American industrial energy market.

Catalytic Gasification of Coal and PetCoke to Pipeline Natural Gas
Daniel P. Goldman, chief financial officer, GreatPoint Energy
Goldman will review GreatPoint Energy’s progress in commercializing a proprietary catalytic gasification technology that converts low cost coal and petcoke into Bluegas™, a 99.5% methane product which meets all natural gas purity requirements and can be transported by conventional pipeline. The Bluegas™ process relies on a proprietary catalyst made of widely abundant, non-toxic metals to generate synthetic natural gas in a single reactor. This one-step process significantly reduces capital costs and improves efficiency compared with conventional gasification technologies while producing a sequestration ready stream of CO2. Goldman will describe the technology, overview of the market opportunity, advantages versus conventional gasification and scale-up strategy.