WASTE MANAGEMENT LEADS PENNSYLVANIA ANTHRACITE GASIFICATION PROJECT

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) has announced the final project to be awarded under an Early Entrance Coproduction Plant solicitation issued in February 1999.

This award to Waste Management & Processors Inc. (WMPI) of Gilberton, Pennsylvania, is a $7.8-million grant for feasibility studies, research and development, and an engineering design for one of the Early Entrance Coproduction Plants. These advanced multiproduct plants are envisioned to be able to produce electricity, along with such energy products as liquid transportation fuels, chemicals and hydrogen. They optimize the economics of coal utilization, while producing clean fuels capable of complying with stricter environmental regulations.

The facility proposed by WMPI would gasify anthracite waste with the resulting syngas subsequently converted into a high-quality, zero-sulfur transportation fuel. Diesel-powered cars and trucks operating on this fuel will produce much lower levels of exhaust pollutants such as soot and ozone-forming nitrogen oxides. Nexant Inc. (an affiliate of Bechtel National Inc.) Texaco Global Gas and Power, and Sasol Technology Ltd., are partnering with WMPI.

DOE will cost-share the project through the preliminary engineering phase. The WMPI project will be built on a 20-acre site in the heart of the anthracite mining region of Northeast Pennsylvania. Currently, two circulating fluidized-bed boilers at the site, also fired by anthracite waste, provide steam to produce 80 megawatts net power. The steam is sold to local institutions.

In WMPI’s coproduction project, anthracite waste will be fed as a slurry to a Texaco gasifier. The synthesis gas, composed of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, would then be cleaned to remove sulfur and other impurities. A concentrated carbon dioxide stream would be produced, and potentially could be sequestered, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the plant. The portion of the synthesis gas not used for power would be fed to a Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) reactor for liquid fuel production, and would be supplemented with hydrogen from either a methane steam reformer or a water-gas-shift reactor. The reactor uses proprietary Sasol technology with a slurry-phase reactor to produce F-T products. These products are sent to a liquids recovery unit for conversion to fuel gas while the wax is sent to a hydrocracker to produce a combined 5,000 barrels per day of naphtha and diesel. The heat derived from the gasification and fuel-making processes will be used to generate steam. Net electricity output is about 50 megawatts.


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