Coal gasification
High prices of oil and natural gas led to increased interest in "BTU Conversion" technologies such as gasification, methanation and liquefaction.
The Flemish scientist Jan Baptista van Helmont used the name "gas" in his Origins of Medicine (c. 1609) to describe his discovery of a "wild spirit" which escaped from heated wood and coal, and which "differed little from the chaos of the ancients".
Working conditions in the Gas Light and Coke Company's Horseferry Road Works, London, in the 1830s were described by a French visitor, Flora Tristan, in her Promenades Dans Londres: Two rows of furnaces on each side were fired up; the effect was not unlike the description of Vulcan's forge, except that the Cyclopes were animated with a divine spark, whereas the dusky servants of the English furnaces were joyless, silent and benumbed....
Meanwhile, William Murdoch and his pupil Samuel Clegg were installing gas lighting in factories and work places, encountering no such impediments.
Blue water gas (BWG) burns with a non-luminous flame which makes it unsuitable for lighting purposes.
Carburetted Water Gas (CWG), developed in the 1860s, is BWG enriched with gases obtained by spraying oil into a hot retort.
The social significance of this change is difficult for generations brought up with lighting after dark available at the touch of a switch to appreciate.
[6] Using this facility, the industry established not only safety but also performance standards for both the manufacture of gas appliances and their servicing in customers' homes and commercial premises.
During World War I, the gas industry's by-products, phenol, toluene and ammonia and sulphurous compounds were valuable ingredients for explosives.
But the advent of the typewriter and the female typist made another important social change that was, unlike the employment of women in war-time industry, to have long-lasting effects.
There were improvements in storage, especially the waterless gas holder, and distribution with the advent of 2–4 inch steel pipes to convey gas at up to 50 psi (340 kPa) as feeder mains compared to the traditional cast iron pipes working at an average of 2–3 inches water gauge (500–750 Pa).
If, however, hydrogen is the desired end-product, the coal gas (primarily the CO product) undergoes the water gas shift reaction where more hydrogen is produced by additional reaction with water vapor: Although other technologies for coal gasification currently exist, all employ, in general, the same chemical processes.
RSA is rich in Bituminous coal and Anthracite and was able to arrange the use of the well known high pressure "Lurgi" gasification process developed in Germany in the first half of 20th century.
"Reversed blowing" (as compared to the previous type described which was invented first) assumes the coal and the oxidizer being supplied from the same side of the reactor.
As the Soviet Union and its KATEKNIIUgol' ceased to exist, the technology was adopted by the individual scientists who originally developed it and is now being further researched in Russia and commercially distributed worldwide.
Pressurized airflow bed gasification technology created through the joint development between Wison Group and Shell (Hybrid).
For example: Hybrid is an advanced pulverized coal gasification technology, this technology combined with the existing advantages of Shell SCGP waste heat boiler, includes more than just a conveying system, pulverized coal pressurized gasification burner arrangement, lateral jet burner membrane type water wall, and the intermittent discharge has been fully validated in the existing SCGP plant such as mature and reliable technology, at the same time, it removed the existing process complications and in the syngas cooler (waste pan) and [fly ash] filters which easily failed, and combined the current existing gasification technology that is widely used in synthetic gas quench process.
It not only retains the original Shell SCGP waste heat boiler of coal characteristics of strong adaptability, and ability to scale up easily, but also absorb the advantages of the existing quench technology.
The resulting syngas is typically at higher pressure and not diluted by nitrogen, allowing for much easier, efficient, and less costly removal of CO2.
[citation needed] Plants such as the Texas Clean Energy Project which employ carbon capture and storage have been touted as a partial, or interim, solution to regulation issues if they can be made economically viable by improved design and mass production.
There has been opposition from utility regulators and ratepayers due to increased cost; and from environmentalists such as Bill McKibben, who view any continued use of fossil fuels as counterproductive.
In the earliest days of MGP operations, coal tar was considered a waste and often disposed into the environment in and around the plant locations.
Over time, the waste tars degrade with phenols, benzene (and other mono-aromatics—BTEX) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons released as pollutant plumes that can escape into the surrounding environment.
Blue billy is typically a granular material and was sometimes sold locally with the strap line "guaranteed weed free drives".
The advent of automobiles reduced the availability of naphtha for carburetion oil, as that fraction was desirable as motor fuel.
MGPs that shifted to heavier grades of oil often experienced problems with the production of tar-water emulsions, which were difficult, time-consuming, and costly to break.
(The cause of tar change water emulsions is complex and was related to several factors, including free carbon in the carburetion oil and the substitution of bituminous coal as a feedstock instead of coke.)
In the UK, a number of former gasworks sites have been redeveloped for residential and other uses (including the Millennium Dome), being seen as prime developable land within the confines of city boundaries.
Typically coal contains anywhere from 0.2 to 5 percent sulfur by dry weight, which converts to H2S and COS in the gasifiers due to the high temperatures and low oxygen levels.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Department of Energy.
