ENCOAL mild coal gasification demonstration project. Annual report, October 1994--September 1995

This document is the combination of the fourth quarter report (July - September 1995) and the 1995 annual report for the ENCOAL project. The following pages include the background and process description for the project, brief summaries of the accomplishments for the first three quarters, and a detailed fourth quarter report. Its purpose is to convey the accomplishments and current progress of the project. ENCOAL Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SMC Mining Company (formerly Shell Mining company, now owned by Zeigler Coal Holding Company), has completed the construction and start-up of a mild gasification demonstration plant at Triton Coal Company`s Buckskin Mine near Gillette, Wyoming. The process, using Liquids From Coal (LFC) technology developed by SMC and SGI International, utilizes low-sulfur Powder River Basis coal to produce two new fuels, Process Derived Fuel (PDF) and Coal Derived Liquids (CDL). The products, as alternative fuels sources, are expected to significantly lower current sulfur emissions at industrial and utility boiler sites throughout the nation, thereby reducing pollutants causing acid rain. In the LFC technology, coal is first deeply dried to remove water physically. The temperature is further raised in a second stage which results in decomposition reactions that form the new products. This chemical decomposition (mild gasification) creates gases by cracking reactions from the feed coal. The chemically altered solids are cooled and further processed to make PDF. The gases are cooled, condensing liquids as CDL, and the residual gases are burned in the process for heat. The process release for the ENCOAL plant predicted that one ton of feed coal would yield roughly {1/2} ton of PDF and {1/2} barrel of CDL. By varying plant running conditions, however, it has since been learned that the actual CDL recovery rate may be as much as 15% to 20% above the projections