Chemical Engineering December 2013 - 26

Gasification by the numbers
Get Chemical
Engineering's
plant cost index
to improve plant
cost estimates...
and delivered in
advance of the
print edition!
For more than 37 years,
chemical process industries
professionals- engineers,
manager and technicians,
have used Chemical
Engineering's Plant Cost
Index to adjust process
plant construction costs
from one period to another.
This database includes all
annual archives (1947 to
present) and monthly data
archives (1970 to present).
Instead of waiting more
than two weeks for the
print or online version of
Chemical Engineering to
arrive, subscribers can
access new data as soon as
it's calculated.
Resources included with
Chemical Engineering's
Plant Cost Index:
* Electronic notification of
monthly updates as soon
as they are available
* All annual data archives
(1947 to present)
* Monthly data archives
(1970 to present)
* Option to download in
Excel format
Subscribe today at
www.che.com/pci
17817
T
he State of the Gasification Industry - the Updated Worldwide Gasification Database,
a report, was prepared and presented by Chris Higman of Higman Consulting
GmbH (Schwalback, Germany) at the Gasification Technologies Conference, which
was sponsored by the Gasification Technologies Council, in Colorado Springs, Colo.,
this October.
According to the most recent figures, the database now includes a total of 747 gasification
projects, consisting of 1,741 gasifiers (excluding spares), of which 234 projects
with 618 gasifiers are active, commercially operating projects. The database includes
61 projects with 202 gasifiers under construction and a further 98 projects with 550
gasifiers in the planning phase. The last report was published in 2010 and covered 463
total gasification projects with 990 gasifiers.
The report attributes growth to the following three factors:
* Chinese projects
* Biomass and waste plants in Europe and the U.S.
* Updating the status of existing entries
Worldwide capacity and growth
In 2010 the gasification operating capacity was 70,000 MWth syngas. According to the
report, this has now grown to about 100,000 MWth. Though this is close to the figure
projected in the 2010 report, data behind the current figures are different. In 2010
considerable growth was predicted in the power sector, primarily in the U.S. But, in
actuality, the growth has been in chemicals, mainly in China.
Gasification by location. The report states that in 2010 there had been a balanced situation
between Asia/Australia, Africa/Middle East and North America. The Asia/Australia
capacity, either operational or under construction, is now more than the rest of the world put
together. This is mostly in China, though there is significant operating or planned capacity
in India, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea. The next highest-capacity countries worldwide
by syngas production are South Africa and Qatar with their Fischer-Tropsch units.
Gasification by application. Chemicals production remains the most important application
of gasification. According to the report, a recent study determined that about
25% of the world's ammonia and over 30% of world's methanol are now produced by
gasification. This compares with figures of about 10% in each case about ten years ago.
These two chemicals remain the largest applications for gasification, though much of the
methanol does not enter the market as such. Many of the larger methanol plants are captive
units feeding derivatives manufacturing, such as acetyls or olefins on the same site.
The report suggests an interesting new chemical application is syngas-to-glycol, with a
number of plants under construction or just entering production. Syngas-to-ethanol is
another chemical application that appears to have a promising future.
Synthetic fuels, both liquid and gaseous, are becoming increasingly important. The
operating liquid fuels capacity is dominated by two plants: Sasol in South Africa and
Pearl in Qatar. The power industry has disappointed, notes the report, compared with
the 2010 projections. Many of the power projects were in the U.S., where the advent of
shale gas changed the market. Also, the fact that the anticipated CO2 legislation failed
to materialize in many countries has been a factor for the power sector.
Gasification by primary feedstock. There had been a time when the use of coal and oil
as a gasification feedstock was of the same order of magnitude. However, with the rising
price of crude oil, coal has started to dominate the feedstock market, notes the report. There
are a number of oil gasifiers among those that have been shutdown since the first issue of
the database in 1999. In many cases, it is no longer economical to use oil products as a
feedstock for ammonia. Coal is now the dominant feedstock and will continue to be so.
There is only a small capacity for plants that were designed for petroleum coke feed.
And, biomass and waste gasification projects tend to be small because of the high cost
of bringing a large amount of biomass to a single point of use.
Report conclusions
Gasification capacity continues to grow on a worldwide basis. While the majority of this
growth is in Chinese coal-to-chemicals plants, other markets are also developing. The development
of mega-plants, particularly for such products as Fischer-Tropsch liquids, substitute
natural gas, and methanol-to-olefins, will have an impact. Large petroleum refineries
are also an important influence on the growth of gasification capacity worldwide.
Excerpts of the report appear courtesy of the Gasification Technologies Council. The
report in its entirety can be found at: www.gasification.org/database1/search.aspx. ❏
stream of the gasifier via the use of
catalysts. The CO-to-H2 ratio is important
in determining the type of
product to be manufactured. According
to the GTC, a refinery would use
a syngas consisting primarily of H2,
26 ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com DeCember 2013
which is important in the production
of transportation fuels. However,
a chemical plant uses syngas with
roughly equal proportions of H2 and
CO, the basic building blocks for a
range of products.

http://www.gasification.org/database1/search.aspx http://www.che.com/pci http://www.Che.Com

Chemical Engineering December 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering December 2013