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Flue Gas Desulfurization
www.FlueGasDesulfurization.com

What is Flue Gas Desulfurization?

Flue Gas Desulfurization is the technology or process used that removes sulfur oxides and sulfur dioxides (SO2) from the products of combustion or flue gases at power plants (biomass or coal fueled) that are produced in boilers.  Flue Gas Desulfurization removes the pollutants before discharge to the atmosphere. Flue Gas Desulfurization is also referred to as a scrubber. Commonly used chemicals or natural materials used include lime as the "scrubbing" media.

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Fluidized Bed Combustion
www.FluidizedBedCombustion.com

Turnkey, "Vendor-Neutral Biomass Gasification Project Development from 1 MW to 20 MW (or any size in between)
Capable of Producing Synthesis Gas from Practically Any Biomass/Organic Waste-stream

We assist our clients with; Fluidized Bed Combustion, Fluidized Bed Boilers, Biomass Gasification, Coal Gasification, Plasma Gasification and "Waste to Energy" engineering and renewable energy project development services.  

This includes turnkey cogeneration plants and trigeneration plants - all of which can be fueled with the Synthesis Gas produced from our "Carbon Free Energy," "Clean Power Generation" and "Pollution Free Power" plants.

Our renewable energy engineering and renewable energy project development services include:  Carbon Credits and Carbon Emissions Consulting, Design, Engineering, Environmental, Feasibility Studies, Feedstock, Legal, Onsite Power Generation (cogeneration or trigeneration) & Greenhouse Gas Emissions consulting for projects located in the U.S. and Canada.

What is Fluidized Bed Combustion?

Fluidized beds suspend solid fuels on upward-blowing jets of air during the combustion process. The result is a turbulent mixing of gas and solids. The tumbling action, much like a bubbling fluid, provides more effective chemical reactions and heat transfer. Fluidized bed combustion evolved from efforts to find a combustion process able to control pollutant emissions without external emission controls (such as scrubbers). The technology burns fuel at temperatures of 1,400 to 1,700 degrees F, well below the threshold where Nitrogen Oxides form (at approximately 2,500 degrees F, the nitrogen and oxygen atoms in the combustion air combine to form nitrogen oxide pollutants). 

The mixing action of the fluidized bed results brings the flue gases into contact with a sulfur-absorbing chemical, such as limestone or dolomite. More than 95 percent of the sulfur pollutants in coal can be captured inside the boiler by the sorbent.

Pressurized Fluidized bed combustion (PFBC) builds on earlier work in atmospheric fluidized-bed combustion technology. Atmospheric fluidized bed combustion is crossing over the commercial threshold, with most boiler manufacturers currently offering fluidized bed boilers as a standard package. This success is largely due to the Clean Coal Technology Program and the Energy Department's Fossil Energy and industry partners’ R&D.

The popularity of fluidized bed combustion is due largely to the technology's fuel flexibility - almost any combustible material, from coal to municipal waste, can be burned - and the capability of meeting sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emission standards without the need for expensive add-on controls.

The Clean Coal Technology Program led to the initial market entry of 1st generation pressurized fluidized bed technology, with an estimated 1000 megawatts of capacity installed worldwide. These systems pressurize the fluidized bed to generate sufficient flue gas energy to drive a gas turbine and operate it in a combined-cycle.

The 1st generation pressurized fluidized bed combustor uses a "bubbling-bed" technology. A relatively stationary fluidized bed is established in the boiler using low air velocities to fluidize the material, and a heat exchanger (boiler tube bundle) immersed in the bed to generate steam. Cyclone separators are used to remove particulate matter from the flue gas prior to entering a gas turbine, which is designed to accept a moderate amount of particulate matter (i.e., "ruggedized").

A 2nd generation pressurized fluidized bed combustor uses "circulating fluidized-bed" technology and a number of efficiency enhancement measures. Circulating fluidized-bed technology has the potential to improve operational characteristics by using higher air flows to entrain and move the bed material, and re-circulating nearly all the bed material with adjacent high-volume, hot cyclone separators. The relatively clean flue gas goes on to the heat exchanger. This approach theoretically simplifies feed design, extends the contact between sorbent and flue gas, reduces likelihood of heat exchanger tube erosion, and improves SO2 capture and combustion efficiency.

A major efficiency enhancing measure for 2nd generation pressurized fluidized bed combustor is the integration of coal gasification to produce Synthesis Gas. This fuel gas is combusted in a topping combustor and adds to the combustor's flue gas energy entering the gas turbine, which is the more efficient portion of the combined cycle. The topping combustor must exhibit flame stability in combusting low-Btu gas and low-NOx emission characteristics. To take maximum advantage of the increasingly efficient commercial gas turbines, the high-energy gas leaving the topping combustor must be nearly free of particulate matter and alkali/sulfur content. Also, releases to the environment from the pressurized fluid bed combustion system must be essentially free of mercury, a soon-to-be regulated hazardous air pollutant.

To reduce cost and carbon dioxide emissions, new sorbents are being evaluated. Sorbent utilization has a major influence on operating costs, and carbon dioxide emissions streams can result in the production and use of alkali-based sorbents.

Efforts are ongoing at the Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF) in Wilsonville, Alabama to ensure critical components and subsystems are ready for demonstration of 2nd generation pressurized fluidized bed combustion. The PSDF is operated by Southern Company Services under DOE contract to conduct cooperative R&D with industry.

Tests conducted at the PSDF in 1998 verified that a newly developed multi-annular swirl burner (MASB) provided the needed flame stability and low-NOx performance characteristics. Tests of promising new hot gas filter components and systems are continuing at the PSDF. Advances made to date in this critical technology area include the development of clay-bonded silicon carbide candle filters and the associated filter vessel. Efforts are currently focused on improved candle filter materials for enhanced durability under extreme temperatures and corrosive environment. New ceramics and ceramic-metallic composites are showing promise. Those passing laboratory screening tests will undergo testing at the PSDF. 

Post-combustion Air Pollution Control Technologies

Another way to reduces emissions is through "dry sorbent injection: or "DSI". 

Dry Sorbent Injection is a post-combustion technology wherein a reactive calcium or
sodium based sorbent is injected into the upper part of the furnace to react directly with the products of combustion that effectively and economically mitigates potential emissions problems in the flue gas including HCI, HF, SO2 and SO3.  

Dry Sorbent Injection advantages include lower equipment costs (first cost) as well as decreases in operations and maintenance costs - and have a lower life-cycle cost than other technologies. Commonly used sorbents include reactive calcium, sodium and powdered activated carbon.

Controlling pollutants such as SO2 can also be accomplished by converting the products of combustion into sulfuric acid, or SO3, by passing the flue gas over a catalyst bed.

Fluidized Bed Combustion allows for greater than 90 percent reduction of harmful emissions (such as SO2) and also reduces the amount of thermal NOx formed because plants are operating at a much lower temperature than conventional boilers. 

A "Circulating Fluidized Bed" plant eliminated most of the pollutants inside the furnace as the biomass or coal is burned. Crushed limestone, when added to the coal as it enters the combustor, captures 90 percent of sulfur pollutants. Fluidized Bed Combustion allows for a “slow burn” that reduces the formation of NOx. Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle plants involve the gasification of coal or biomass, cleaning the gas, and combusting it in a gas turbine generator to produce electricity.


What is a Circulating Fluidized Bed Boiler?

A Circulating Fluidized Bed Boiler is a fully contained state-of-the-art technology for processing solid fuels where fuel is suspended in a mixture of superheated air and sand, collectively called the "fluid bed."   Reagents like limestone are added, and temperatures are controlled to directly capture the sulfur and reduce formation of Nitrogen Oxides. 

Circulating Fluidized Bed Boilers produce 90% fewer emissions compared to typical coal fired power plants.

Fluidized Bed Boilers, a Bed for Burning Coal?

It was a wet, chilly day in Washington DC in 1979 when a few scientists and engineers joined with government and college officials on the campus of Georgetown University to celebrate the completion of one of the world's most advanced coal combustors.

It was a small coal burner by today's standards, but large enough to provide heat and steam for much of the university campus. But the new boiler built beside the campus tennis courts was unlike most other boilers in the world.

A Fluidized Bed Boiler

In a fluidized bed boiler, upward blowing jets of air suspend burning coal, allowing it to mix with limestone that absorbs sulfur pollutants. 

It was called a "fluidized bed boiler." 

In a typical pulverized coal boiler, coal is crushed into very fine particles, blown into the boiler, and ignited to form a long, lazy flame.  In other types of boilers, the burning coal simply rests on grates. But in a "fluidized bed boiler," crushed coal particles "float" inside the boiler, suspended on upward-blowing jets of air. The red-hot mass of floating coal — called the "bed" — would bubble and tumble around like boiling lava inside a volcano. Scientists call this being "fluidized." That's how the name "fluidized bed boiler" came about.

Why does a "fluidized bed boiler" burn coal cleaner?

There are two major reasons fluidized bed boilers are cleaner, and superior to typical coal fired power plants. One, the tumbling action allows limestone to be mixed in with the coal. Remember - limestone is a "sulfur sponge" in that it absorbs sulfur pollutants. As coal burns in a fluidized bed boiler, it releases sulfur. But just as rapidly, the limestone tumbling around beside the coal captures the sulfur. A chemical reaction occurs, and the sulfur gases are changed into a dry powder that can be removed from the boiler. (This dry powder — called calcium sulfate — can be processed into the wallboard used for building walls inside our houses.)

The second reason a fluidized bed boiler burns cleaner is that it burns "cooler." Cooler in this sense as it is still fairly hot at about 1400 degrees F.   But older coal boilers operate at temperatures nearly twice that (almost 3000 degrees F).  Also, recall that nitrogen oxides form when a fuel burns hot enough to break apart the nitrogen molecules in the air and cause the nitrogen atoms to join with oxygen atoms.  But 1,400 degrees isn't hot enough for that to happen, so few nitrogen oxides forms in a fluidized bed boiler.

The result is that a fluidized bed boiler can burn very dirty coal and remove 90% or more of the sulfur and nitrogen pollutants while the coal is burning. Fluidized bed boilers can also burn just about anything else - all types of biomass, including wood, ground-up railroad ties, even soggy coffee grounds.

Today, fluidized bed boilers are operating or being built that are 10 to 20 times larger than the small unit built almost 20 years ago at Georgetown University. There are more than 300 of these boilers operating here in the USA and around the world. 

A new type of fluidized bed boiler makes a major improvement in the basic fluidized bed boiler technology.  It encases the entire boiler inside a large pressure vessel, much like the pressure cooker used in homes for canning fruits and vegetables — except the ones used in power plants are the size of a small house!  Burning coal in a "pressurized fluidized bed boiler" produces a high-pressure stream of combustion gases that can spin a gas turbine to make electricity, then boil water for a steam turbine — two sources of electricity from the same fuel input - that is called "cogeneration."

A "pressurized fluidized bed boiler" is a more efficient way to burn coal. In fact, future boilers using this system will be able to generate 50% more electricity from coal than a regular power plant from the same amount of coal. That's like getting 3 units of power when you used to get only 2.

Because it uses less fuel to produce the same amount of power, a more efficient "pressurized fluidized bed boiler" will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) released from coal-burning power plants.

"Pressurized fluidized bed boilers" are one of the newest ways to burn coal cleanly. But there is another new way that doesn't actually burn the coal at all.

Coal Gasification

Don't think of coal as a solid black rock. Think of it as a mass of atoms. Most of the atoms are carbon. A few are hydrogen. And there are some others, like sulfur and nitrogen, mixed in. Chemists can take this mass of atoms, break it apart, and make new substances — like gas!

One of the most advanced - and cleanest - coal power plants in the world is Tampa Electric's Polk Power Station in Florida.  Rather than burning coal, it turns coal into a gas that can be cleaned of almost all pollutants.  This technology is called coal gasification.

How do you break apart the atoms of coal? You may think it would take a sledgehammer, but actually all it takes is water and heat. Heat coal hot enough inside a big metal vessel, blast it with steam (the water), and it breaks apart. Into what?

The carbon atoms join with oxygen that is in the air (or pure oxygen can be injected into the vessel). The hydrogen atoms join with each other. The result is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen — this is called "Synthesis Gas."

Now, what do you do with the Synthesis Gas?

You can burn Synthesis Gas - very cleanly - and use the hot combustion gases to spin a gas turbine to generate electricity. The exhaust gases coming out of the gas turbine are hot enough to boil water to make steam that can spin another type of turbine to generate even more electricity. But why go to all the trouble to turn the coal into gas if all you are going to do is burn it?

A major reason is that the impurities in coal — like sulfur, nitrogen and many other trace elements — can remove practically all of the pollutants when coal is changed into Synthesis Gas through Coal Gasification. In fact, scientists have ways to remove 99.9% of the sulfur and small dirt particles from the coal gas.  Coal Gasification is one of the best ways to clean pollutants out of coal.

Another reason is that the coal gases — carbon monoxide and hydrogen, or simply "Synthesis Gas" — don't have to be burned. They can also be used as valuable chemicals. Scientists have developed chemical reactions that turn carbon monoxide and hydrogen into everything from liquid fuels for cars and trucks to plastic toothbrushes! Today, in Tampa, Florida, and West Terre Haute, Indiana, there are power plants generating electricity through "coal gasification" instead of burning it. At a plant in Kingsport, Tennessee, coal gas is being used to make plastic for photographic film and to make methanol (a fuel that can be burned in automobile engines).

Coal Gasification could be one of the most promising ways to use coal in the future to generate electricity and other valuable products. Yet, it is only one of an entirely new family of energy processes called "Clean Coal Technologies" — technologies that can make fossil fuels future fuels.

Synthesis Gas
www.SynthesisGas.com

Clean, Renewable, Carbon-neutral fuel made in the U.S.A. - Unlimited Supply!
from Biomass Gasification plants!

What is Synthesis Gas?

Synthesis gas, or syngas, are the names given to gas of different (yet closely similar) to composition that are generated in coal gasification, coal liquefaction, gas liquefaction - also known as natural gas to liquids plants and other types of waste-to-energy facilities. 

 

	America's demand for natural gas is expected to grow as much as 50% by 2025. Unconventional gas resources, much of which currently are not economically recoverable, are expected to bear much of the burden of meeting this demand.

Clean Power Generation

The clean-burning properties of natural gas make it a preferred fuel for power generation. Indeed, natural gas consumption in the power generation sector is projected to increase from 5.0 trillion cubic feet in 2003 to 9.4 trillion cubic feet in 2025. Cost-effective production, processing, transmission, and storage technologies will enable natural gas to fulfill this central role in meeting our Nation’s growing electricity needs.

However, with the recent problems relating to the price of natural gas as well as the potential harm all fossil fuels may be causing to the climate and the planet, now is the time to begin placing greater emphasis on the production of energy from fuels that do not cause such economic and environmental liability.

Now is the time for Clean Power Generation.  Best of all, all of these renewable fuels and produced in the USA - most produced from waste streams from  wastewater treatment plants, landfills/municipal solid waste, and agricultural waste streams such as corn stover, rice hulls and the manure from dairy farms, chicken farms and hog farms.

Biomass Gasification

Turnkey Biomass Gasification Plants,
Biomass Gasification Engineering and Feasibility Studies

We provide turnkey Biomass Gasification plants as well as Engineering and Feasibility Studies for clients considering Biomass Gasification under a strict  "vendor neutral" basis.  

Our Biomass Gasification Feasibility Studies form the basic foundation in our client's decision-making process and the critical answers they seek regarding Biomass Gasification - do we move forward with our plans to build a Biomass Gasification plant?  Where should it be built? What are the optimum biomass feedstocks for this location?  What size plant should we build?  Who should build it?  Which Biomass Gasification plant do we choose? Can we sell our excess power to the grid?  

Our Biomass Gasification Feasibility Study will answer these important questions and more.  In the event you decide to move forward with our Biomass Gasification Engineering and Feasibility Study.  We require a 50% deposit to begin work.

Biomass Gasification Plants Now Available

We now offer turnkey Biomass Gasification plant development services, including feasibility studies.  Biomass Gasification plants generate "carbon free energy" and "pollution free power" and can operate on virtually every biomass feedstock. Biomass Gasification plants provide our clients with maximum returns, which means the highest revenues with the lowest operating costs, from practically any biomass feedstock.  Our knowledge and expertise will help you maximize Biomass Gasification revenues at your facility.

Our Biomass Gasification engineering and project development solutions:

• "Turnkey" Biomass Gasification plants and project development services

• Project Engineering Feasibility & Economic Analysis Studies Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Permitting, Utility Interconnects, Power Purchase Agreements, Operations/Maintenance and Training

• Environmental Engineering & Permitting 

• Project Funding & Financing Options; including Equity Investment, Debt Financing, Lease and Municipal Lease

• Long-term Service Agreements

• Operations & Maintenance

• Green Tag Consulting Services (Renewable Energy Credit, Carbon Dioxide Credits, Emission Reduction Credits) available through our strategic partner provider, including Brokerage Services, Application and Permitting

• We will only select the best products and technologies for your operation as we seek the optimum environmental and economic solutions for our clients.

What is Biomass Gasification?

Biomass Gasification is the process in which Synthesis Gas is produced in the Biomass Gasification process. 

The Synthesis Gas is then used like any other fuel, such as natural gas, which is not a renewable fuel.

Biomass Gasification Basics

Biomass fuels such as firewood and agriculture-generated residues and wastes are generally organic. They contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen along with some moisture. Under controlled conditions, characterized by low oxygen supply and high temperatures, most biomass materials can be converted into a gaseous fuel known as producer gas, which consists of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen. This thermo-chemical conversion of solid biomass into gaseous fuel is called biomass gasification. The producer gas so produced has low a calorific value (1000-1200 Kcal/Nm3), but can be burnt with a high efficiency and a good degree of control without emitting smoke. Each kilogram of air-dry biomass (10% moisture content) yields about 2.5 Nm3 of producer gas. In energy terms, the conversion efficiency of the biomass gasification process is in the range of 60%-70%.

Multiple Advantages of Biomass Gasification

Conversion of solid biomass into combustible gas has all the advantages associated with using gaseous and liquid fuels such as clean combustion, compact burning equipment, high thermal efficiency and a good degree of control. In locations, where biomass is already available at reasonable low prices (e.g. rice mills) or in industries using fuel wood, Biomass Gasifiers offer definite economic advantages. Biomass gasification technology is also environment-friendly, because of the firewood savings and reduction in CO2 emissions.

Biomass gasification technology has the potential to replace diesel and other petroleum products in several applications, foreign exchange.

Applications for Biomass Gasification

Thermal applications: cooking, water boiling, steam generation, drying etc.  Motive power applications: Using producer gas as a fuel in IC engines for applications such as water pumping Electricity generation: Using producer gas in dual-fuel mode in diesel engines/as the only fuel in spark ignition engines/in gas turbines.


What are Biomass Gasifiers?

Biomass Gasifiers are reactors that heat biomass in a low-oxygen environment to produce a fuel gas that contains from one fifth to one half (depending on the process conditions) the heat content of natural gas. The gas produced from a Biomass gasifiers can drive highly efficient devices such as turbines and fuel cells to generate electricity.

What is Synthesis Gas?

Synthesis Gas is produced through Biomass Gasification.  The Synthesis Gas is comprised of varying amounts of carbon monoxide and hydrogen.

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For more information, call/email:

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We support the Renewable Energy Institute by donating a portion of our profits to the Renewable Energy Institute in their efforts to reduce fossil fuel use through renewable energy and their goals to end pollution from Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

The Renewable Energy Institute is "Changing The Way The World Makes and Uses Energy by Providing Research & Development, Funding and Resources That Create Pollution Free Power, Carbon Free Energy & Renewable Energy Technologies."

Flue Gas Desulfurization
www.FlueGasDesulfurization.com

info@FlueGasDesulfurization.com

Renewable Energy Institute

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