By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 13 -- Sherritt International Corp., Toronto, has floated a development plan for a $1.2 billion clean coal gasification project in south-central Alberta that would produce syngas, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and elemental sulfur.
One of as many as four coal gasification units could start up in late 2011 on flat agricultural land about 50 miles southeast of Edmonton, just south of Beaverhill Lake. Feasibility of a second unit would be investigated once the first unit is operating at design capacity.
Sherritt noted, "The development of Alberta's vast oil sands resource has resulted in increased demands for natural gas to produce steam for bitumen recovery and as a source of hydrogen for bitumen upgrading." Use of natural gas is costly and unsustainable, the company said.
Coal carefully reacted with oxygen and steam produces a syngas mix of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and CO2. This mix, with more steam, converts CO to hydrogen and CO2. Then acid gas is applied to remove the CO2 and other impurities such as hydrogen sulfide. Output is 320 MMcfd of syngas, further refined into 270 MMscfd of pipeline-grade hydrogen, and as much as 12,500 tonnes/day of high-quality CO2.
The Dodds-Roundhill coal gasification project would be Canada's first commercial coal gasification application.
Sherritt and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan are 50-50 partners in the developer, Carbon Development Partnership. CDP owns or has the rights to 12 billion tonnes of economically minable coal in Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan.
The initial project would involve a single coal gasification unit on 640 acres and a 312 sq km surface mine with 320 million tonnes of subbituminous coal, enough to support two gasifiers for 40 years. Average overburden depth is 15 m.
Other needed infrastructure includes a water pipeline, probably from the North Saskatchewan River, one or more pipelines to ship syngas to Alberta's heartland region around Fort Saskatchewan, and a pipeline to carry CO2 to enhanced oil recovery projects or sequestration sites.
Alberta's 33 billion tonnes of coal represent several hundred years of supply. The province uses coal to generate electricity and for little else.