The U.S. Department of Energy has agreed to jointly fund a project to demonstrate advanced technology for producing methanol from coal-derived synthesis gas on a commercial scale.
The project, sponsored by Air Products & Chemicals Inc, Allentown, Pa., was selected in the third round of competition of the clean coal technology demonstration program.
DOE is contributing $92.7 million, or 43%, of the cost of the $213.7 million project, with the rest coming from industry participants and from the sale of produced methanol.
The project was switched from an originally proposed site in Beulah, N.D., to the Cool Water Gasification plant in Daggett, Calif., site of the nation's first large scale coal gasification combined cycle demonstration plant.
Texaco Inc. is buying the Cool Water plant from Southern California Edison Co. The methanol production technology will be integrated with the existing combined cycle power plant at the site.
DOE said successful demonstration of the technology will culminate more than 10 years of DOE sponsored research in the coal-to-methanol process. The project's liquid phase methanol synthesis process was developed at a government owned pilot plant in LaPorte, Tex.
DOE methanol is desired as a transportation fuel because it contains no sulfur and produces very low nitrogen oxide emissions, DOE said. Methanol produced from coal also can be used in coal gasification power plants as a supplemental fuel for combustion turbines.
SYNTHESIS PROCESS
The project will demonstrate a liquid phase methanol synthesis process that is said to be more efficient than the conventional "gas phase" process and is better suited for processing gases produced by modern coal gasifiers.
DOE said producing methanol as a coproduct in combined cycle coal gasification facilities enables the gasifier to run continuously at its most efficient level.
During periods of low power demand, synthesis gas made by the gasifier would be converted to methanol for storage. At peak power demand, that methanol could be used to supplement the combustion turbine, thus lowering the size of the gasifier that would be required if the gasifiers alone had to meet peak electrical power demand.
Methanol produced in the demonstration unit will be tested at the Cool Water facility and in offsite boiler and transportation applications, including bus and van pool tests in the Charleston, W.Va., and Los Angeles areas.
Air Products plans to offer the commercial system to utilities on an own and operate basis. DOE's Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center is monitoring the project for the government.
Construction is to begin late in 1993, with 4 year operation and test period scheduled to start early in 1995.
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