Development Of The IGT Mild Gasification Process In A 100-pound-per-hour Process Research Unit

The U.S. DOE is sponsoring development of technology for the mild gasification of coal. This technology is intended to produce value-added co- products from solid char and condensable oils and tars. It has many advantages in making use of this nation's abundant coal supplies in an economical and environmentally safe way. Mild gasification is an extension of coal carbonization technology into a continuous coal conversion process operating at low-severity conditions of temperature and pressure, incorporating the technological advances made in coal gasification in the past 20 years. The Institute of Gas Technology (IGT) mild gasification process incorporates a combined fluidized bed-entrained bed reactor designed to handle all types of coals. The type of coal used and the market available for the char, which constitutes up to 70% of the co-products, are interrelated. The char could be used to produce form coke, utility fuel, gasification feedstock, or low-cost activated adsorbent char. The process could be integrated with a conventional coal preparation plant, using a stream of high-moisture coal fines. Mild gasification of a coking or marginally coking coal could produce a form-coke for the steel industry and foundries and help relieve the shortage in U. S. coke supplies. The development of a mild gasification process at IGT has been supported by the U.S. DOE since September, 1987, with the operation of a 100-lb/h capacity isothermal process research unit (PRU) to investigate the effects of operating conditions and to determine preferred processing condi- tions for two coals, one from Illinois and one from West Virginia. The PRU results have been used to design a 24-ton/day adiabatic process development unit (PDU).