NETL's Gas Process Development Unit for Hot/Warm Gas Cleanup

The long-term objectives for the GPDU project are to: (1) assess transport and fluidized bed reactor control and performance to determine the most suitable mode for continuous gas desulfurization, and (2) evaluate candidate sorbents for bulk removal of sulfurous compounds from syngas to assess the readiness of sorbents for commercial scale. The DOE has funded desulfurization and sorbent research for over 20 years and extensive laboratory-scale and bench-scale work has been conducted by government, academia and industry on the development and testing of regenerable sorbents for bulk sulfur removal from syngas (Cicero, et.al, 2000; Mitchell, 1998; Lew, 1989). However, the technologies still need to be proven in controlled conditions at a larger scale. Several Clean Coal Technology projects (i.e, the Toms Creek IGCC Demonstration Project, the Pinon Pine IGCC Power Project and the Tampa Electric Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle Project) had proposed demonstrations of hot-gas desulfurization technology, but were not seen to completion (Clean Coal Technology Compendium website, 2002). As a result, there is a lack of data on sorbent and reactor performance under longer-term continuous conditions at a large scale. For commercial acceptance of hot- or warm-gas desulfurization, technology reliability is a question yet to be answered. The GPDU will fill the gap and has the objective to provide the proof-of-concept that is needed to foster commercialization of hot (greater than 538 C (1,000 F)) and/or warm (260 to 427 C (500 to 800 F)) gas desulfurization for IGCC processes. The GPDU facility, which includes a separate Syngas Generator (SGG) that supplies a simulated coal gas to the GPDU, is in the shakedown phase of operations with an initial reactor configuration of transport absorber-transport regenerator. The status and preliminary results of shakedown activities are presented to provide insight into startup and operations of a continuous transport desulfurization process