Clean gas fuel made by the gasification of coal

Abstract

A fuel preparation apparatus in which coal or coal and other carbon containing material is converted to an environmentally acceptable fuel gas by the reaction with air and steam at a pressure of from 20 to 90 pounds per square inch absolute suitable for providing fuel to a gas turbine, or a stoker type or other boiler having a coal delivery system, a coal crusher, coal storage bins, lock hoppers, a gasifier vessel of two stages, liquid and solid separator vessels, heat and steam recovery vessels, equipment to control the flow of steam and air to the gasifier so as to maintain fuel quality, and a gas clean up plant that will remove environmentally unacceptable components of the gas such as hydrogen sulphide and other sulphur containing compounds and tars and light oils.

Description

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION [0001] The gasification of coal by reaction with steam and air has been practiced for more than a century. For most of those years it was used to provide fuel gas for lighting and heating in relatively simple equipment at a pressure slightly higher than that of the atmosphere. In those manufacturing processes, by-products of coke, tars and light oils were produced in sufficient quantities that their values influenced the selling price of the gas. In recent years many of the outlets for the by-products have been replaced by electricity, natural gas and petroleum distillates with the result that more sophisticated equipment has been designed and developed. This equipment operates at high pressure and uses, as reactants, steam and pure or nearly pure oxygen instead of air. This equipment is costly and complex to operate with the result that the operating units must be large to achieve good economics. [0002] Although at the present time power plants for the p...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The system produces a fuel gas with improved heating value and composition, suitable for small gas turbines and boilers, meeting environmental standards and providing a cost-effective solution for small-scale power generation.

Problems solved by technology

Many small sized gasifiers using air as a reactant are available but the quality of the gas produced is not able to satisfy the strict fuel quality demands, particularly as regards gas heating value and composition.

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