In the next 5 years, CTL, CTO, SNG, coal to methanol, coal to large scale ammonia, CTMEG, coal to hydrogen and coal to ethanol will continue to develop in China. ASIACHEM’s research shows that, new coal gasification projects to be built in China during 2017-2021, will add the syngas capacity of 27.7 million Nm3/h, equivalent to 236 sets of 2000t/d pulverized coal gasifiers, which will bring huge demand for gasification technology and equipment.
The investment of coal chemical project is huge, mainly due to the huge investment in gasification units. Because of the different downstream products, the coal to syngas production plants (including gasification, shift and purification units) accounts for about 40%-60% of the total investment of the project.
Reducing investment can improve the economy of coal chemical projects, so how can coal gasification plants reduce investment? According to the ASIACHEM’s analysis, we can start from the following aspects: 1. configure larger scale gasifier; 2. equipment localization; 3. engineering optimization.
1. configure larger scale gasifier
Under the drive of large-scale modern coal chemical project, the gasification unit presents the trend of large scale, high temperature and high pressure. The scale effect can further reduce the gasification investment.
Data show that, with production of coal to 1.8Mt/a methanol production of 600kt/a olefin project as an example, configured 7 sets of coal feed of 1500 t/d of CWS gasifier (5 start 2 standby). If the project use coal feed of 2500-3000t/d CWS gasifier, the configuration can be reduced to 3 start and 1 standby, and the gasifier investment can save 15-20%. At the same time, the reduction of the number of the gasifier can reduce the difficulty of operation management and save the repairing and maintaining costs.
2. equipment localization
In addition to the key equipment of gasifier, there are more than 30 kinds of equipment within gasification boundary , such as washing tower, lock bucket, filter and so on. At present, there are more than 20 kinds of coal gasification technology applied in China, and more than 90% of the equipment components can be made domestically.
Data show that, taking the fly ash filter with dry pulverized coal gasification technology as an example, one fly ash filter needs 1152 filter elements, originally using imported ceramic filter element, and later using domestic Fe3Al filter element. Achieved or even exceed the import effect, single filter element domestic price is only half of the imported. One fly ash filter can save CNY3.456 million, greatly reducing the initial equipment investment and operating costs.
Under the premise of ensuring safety and reliability, using domestic equipment can not only greatly reduce the original investment, but also effectively reduce the maintenance cost of equipment, shorten the procurement cycle, and reduce production costs.
3. engineering optimization
According to the operation experience of the domestic coal gasification units for many years, a considerable part of the equipment failure is caused by engineering and technical problems. After years of operation experience accumulation, engineering optimization measures include: gasification process burner material selection and partial reinforcement, refractory brick material selection and brick type design, quench ring structure design transformation, quench chamber size transformation, black water treatment system optimization, etc.
The data show that, taking quench chamber structure improvement as an example, the production units with different pressure and load, have the same size quench chamber design structure, which causes the quench water to enter the next system, limits the high load operation of the gasifier. In recent years, a large number of engineers and technicians have done a lot of calculation and research. It is expected that the working conditions can be effectively improved by changing the size of the quench chamber and adjusting the size of the internal components.
Coal gasification technology licensors, equipment & instrument manufacturers, and engineering companies will not only continue to usher in a huge market opportunity, but also face three challenges. Firstly, the investment of gasification unit accounts for significant proportion of total investment of coal chemical project, and how to reduce the investment of gasification unit? Secondly, stable and high load operation of gasifier is crucial to the profitability of coal chemical plant, and how to improve the performance of gasifiers? Thirdly, gasification technology is developing towards high energy efficiency, large scale and wide coal adaptability, and what are the new requirements for equipment and instrument providers?
Gasification Technology, Operation and Equipment Forum 2017organized by ASIACHEM will be held on Dec 21-22 in Zhuhai, Guangdong, China. The upcoming conference will invite coal chemical companies, coal gasification technology providers, engineering & equipment companies to jointly discuss China’s coal chemical outlook & coal gasification market prospect, matching of coal gasification technology & downstream products, experience & daily management of high load & long period operation of gasification unit, advanced equipment & instrument for optimization of coal gasification performance, environmental strategy & wastes treatment of coal gasification unit, development trend of new generation gasification technology, etc.
