Power Systems Development Facility Gasification Test Run TC10

This report discusses Test Campaign TC10 of the Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc. (KBR) Transport Gasifier train with a Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation (Siemens Westinghouse) particle filter system at the Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF) located in Wilsonville, Alabama. The Transport Gasifier is an advanced circulating fluidized-bed gasifier designed to operate as either a combustor or a gasifier in air- or oxygen-blown mode of operation using a particulate control device (PCD). The Transport Gasifier was operated as a pressurized gasifier during TC10 in air- (mainly for transitions and problematic operations) and oxygen-blown mode. Test Run TC10 was started on November 16, 2002, and completed on December 18, 2002. During oxygen-blown operations, gasifier temperatures varied between 1,675 and 1,825 F at pressures from 150 to 180 psig. After initial adjustments were made to reduce the feed rate, operations with the new fluidized coal feeder were stable with about half of the total coalfeed rate through the new feeder. However, the new fluidized-bed coal feeder proved to be difficult to control at low feed rates. Later the coal mills and original coal feeder experienced difficulties due to a high moisture content in the coal from heavy rains. Additional operational difficulties were experienced when several of the pressure sensing taps in the gasifier plugged. As the run progressed, modifications to the mills (to address processing the wet coal) resulted in a much larger feed size. This eventually resulted in the accumulation of large particles in the circulating solids causing operational instabilities in the standpipe and loop seal. Despite problems with the coal mills, coal feeder, pressure tap nozzles and the standpipe, the gasifier did experience short periods of stability during oxygenblown operations. During these periods, the syngas quality was high. During TC10, the gasifier gasified over 609 tons of Powder River Basin subbituminous coal and accumulated a total of 416 hours of coal feed, over 293 hours of which were in oxygen-blown operation. No sorbent was used during the run