In Kingsport Tennessee, Eastman Chemical operates three gasification plants using nearby SW Virginia coal.
They were designed by close Jaycee friends of mine and at least one close friend was an operations engineer there. They have been running since 1980.
Eastman has several turbines producing electricity. They recently converted one to natural gas from coal.
With gas so cheap, one wonders if the North Dakota project will be profitable
The ND project will examine if any modifications to the combustor will be required for stability of fuel burn, and evaluate any corrosion issues from burning raw unscrubbed syngas. The syngas unit will be an integral part of a power generating plant using coal as a fuel feed source.
This turbine differs from a typical jet engine in that the primary working fluid is CO2 at about 400 bar pressure. A fuel gas and pure oxygen mixture, diluted with about 95% CO2 is burned within specialty combustor cans. The construction uses specialty high nickel alloys for the inner turbine components, to counter the combined heat and corrosion aspects presented in operation.
The syngas operation will explore use of varied compositions of coal including lignite. As the pure NG fueled Allam Cycle turbine is rated for sour gas contaminated operation, an examination of components tested under conditions of use with syngas containing acid precursor contaminants and minor water content will be undertaken.
Within the turbine, additional water results from the combustion of fuel; and, will transform oxides of nitrogen and sulfur to acids once condensation occurs within the cooler water separation part of the system. Combustion product scrubbing from the produced water results in a chemical feed-stock and pure water output. A minor amount of the 30 bar pure CO2 is diverted to feed a pipeline pumping unit.