Coal Conversion Processes

Brief introduction to:

▪ Coal Conversion to Electricity

▪ Coal Gasification

▪ Coal Liquefaction

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Coal to Electricity
A Ty p i c a l C o a l - F i re d T h e r m a l P o w e r S t a t i o n
 Introduction

A Thermal Power Plant converts the heat energy of

coal into electrical energy
Coal is burnt in a boiler which converts water into
steam.
The expansion of steam in turbine produces
mechanical power which drives the alternator
coupled to the turbine.
Thermal Power Plants contribute maximum to the
generation of Power for any country .
In thermal generating stations coal, oil, natural gas
etc. are employed as primary sources of energy.

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 Main and Auxiliary Equipment

1. Coal handling plant

2. Pulverizing plant
3. Draft fans
4. Boiler
5. Ash handling plant
6. Turbine
7. Condenser
8. Cooling towers and ponds
9. Feed water heater
10. Economizer
11. Superheater and Reheater
12. Air preheater

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 Coal Handling Unit

• The function of coal handling plant is the automatic feeding of

coal to the boiler furnace.
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 Pulverising Plant

The coal is pulverized i.e. ground to dust-like size,

and carried to the furnace in a stream of hot air.

Pulverizing exposes large surface area to oxygen and

consequently improves combustion.

Pulverising mills are classified as:

▪ Contact mill
▪ Ball mill
▪ Impact mill

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 Draft system

Draft is the differential pressure between atmosphere

and inside the boiler.

It is necessary to promote the flow of gases through

boiler

Draft may be:

▪ Natural draft
▪ Mechanical draft

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 Boiler

A boiler or steam generator

is a closed vessel in which
water (under pressure) is
converted into steam.
It is always designed to
absorb the maximum
amount of heat released in
the process of combustion
Boilers are of two types:
▪ Fire tube boiler
▪ Water tube boiler

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Superheater
The steam (after it has left the boiler drum) is heated above its
saturation temperature.
The amount of superheat added to the steam is influenced by:
▪ Location
▪ Arrangement
▪ Amount of super heater surface installed
▪ Rating of the boiler.
The super heater may consist of one or more stages of tube banks
arranged to effectively transfer heat from the products of
combustion.
Super heaters are classified as convection, radiant or combination of
these.
 Reheater

Some of the heat of superheated steam is used to

rotate the turbine where it loses some of its energy.
Reheater is also steam boiler component in which
heat is added to this intermediate-pressure steam,
which has given up some of its energy in expansion
through the high-pressure turbine.
The steam after reheating is used to rotate the
second steam turbine where the heat is converted to
mechanical energy.

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Turbine
A steam turbine converts heat energy of
steam into mechanical energy and drives
the generator.
It uses the principle that steam, when
issuing from a small opening, attains a
high velocity.
This velocity attained during expansion
depends on the initial and final heat
content of the steam. This difference b/w
initial and final heat content represents
the heat energy converted into kinetic
energy.
These are of two types:
➢ Impulse turbine
➢ Reaction turbine
Turbine
 Ash Handling Unit

The percentage of ash in coal varies from 5% in

good quality coal to about 40% in poor quality coal
Power plants generally use poor quality of coal,
thus the amount of ash produced is large
▪ A modern 2000MW plant produces about 5000 tons of
ash daily
The stations use some conveyor arrangement to
carry ash to dump sites directly or for carrying and
loading it to trucks and wagons which transport it to
the site of disposal

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 Condenser

The condensers are heat exchangers which

convert steam from its gaseous state to liquid
state.

The purpose is to condense the outlet (or

exhaust) steam from steam turbine and to get
the condensed steam in the form of pure water,
(otherwise known as condensate) back to
steam generator or (boiler) as boiler feed
water.
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 Cooling Towers

Cooling tower is a steel or concrete hyperbolic

structure having a reservoir at the base for storage
of cooled water
▪ Typically a 2000MW plant needs about 1500MGallon of
water for cooling purposes.
▪ Most plants use a closed cooling system where warm
water coming from condenser is cooled and reused
▪ Small plants use spray ponds and medium and large
plants use cooling towers.
▪ Height of the cooling tower may be 150m or so and
diameter at the base is 150m

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 Feed Water Heater

Advantages of heating water before feeding to the

boiler:-
▪ Feed water heating improves overall plant efficiency.
▪ The dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide which would
otherwise cause boiler corrosion are removed in feed
water heater
▪ Thermal stresses due to cold water entering the boiler
drum are avoided.
▪ Quantity of steam produced by the boiler is increased.
▪ Some other impurities carried by the steam and
condensate, due to corrosion of boiler and condenser are
precipitated outside the boiler.

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Economizer

Flue gases coming out of the boiler carry lot of

heat. An economizer extracts a part of this heat
from flue gases and uses it for heating feed
water.
The use of economizer results in saving the
consumption of coal and improving the boiler
efficiency
Economizer
 Air Preheater

After flue gases leave the economiser, some

further heat can be extracted from them and
used to heat incoming heat.
▪ Cooling of flue gases by 20°C increases the plant
efficiency by 1%.
Air preheaters can be of three types
▪ Plate type
▪ Tubular type
▪ Regenerative type

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Coal Gasification
 Coal Gasification

Gasification is a process to upgrade a solid

feedstock, which is difficult to handle, by
removing undesirable impurities and
converting it into a gaseous form that can be
purified and used directly as a fuel or further
reacted to produce other gaseous or liquid
fuels, or chemicals

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 Benefits of Coal Gasification

Liquid and gaseous fuels are easier to handle

and use than coal

Shipping coal can be difficult and labor

intensive and can have negative environmental
impacts

Impurities in coal can be more readily

removed through gasification than when
utilized directly
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 Cont.

Synthetic fuels burn more cleanly than coal, and

fewer sulfur and nitrogen oxides are formed during
combustion
Carbon capture and sequestration is easier in a
gasification system than in a combustion system
Gasification of coal reduces the concerns of volatile
swings in availability and cost of gaseous or liquid
fuels that are experienced with petroleum or natural
gas

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 Gasification Processes

Gasification processes are classified on the

basis of the method used to bring the coal into
contact with the gasifying medium (air or
oxygen).

▪ Fixed-bed
▪ Fluidized-bed
▪ Entrained-flow systems

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 Gasification Reactions

CO2 and H2O react with carbon in the solid phase to

produce CO and H2:

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 Cont.

At the same time, the produced gases react

among themselves, leading to further changes
in the gas phase composition. One of the most
important of these is known as the shift
reaction:

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 Cont.

The gas stream also receives products from the

devolatilization of the solid phase.

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Coal Liquefaction
 Liquefaction is the conversion of coals into
liquid products.

Methods:
▪ Direct liquefaction
▪ Indirect liquefaction

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 Direct Method of Liquefaction

In direct liquefaction, also referred to as coal

hydrogenation, coal is mixed with a hydrogen-
donor solvent

The resultant mixture is reacted with hydrogen

or syngas under elevated pressures and
temperatures to produce a liquid fuel

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Direct Coal Liquefaction
 Hydrogenation

A chemical reaction that results in the addition

of hydrogen (H2)
▪ Usually done to reduce or saturate the organic
compounds
At high temperatures the addition of hydrogen
to hydrocarbons does not require a catalyst
Under 480°C the catalyst employed are
platinum, palladium, rhodium and ruthenium

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 Carbonization

Converting organic substance into carbon or

residue by pyrolysis (heating)

Convert coal to coal gas or tar

Also used to convert biomass to coal/ biodiesel

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 Indirect Method of Liquefaction

In indirect liquefaction, the coal is gasified into a

mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (i.e.,
syngas)
Coal + Oxygen + Steam

The syngas is then processed into liquid products using

Fischer–Tropsch synthesis.

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 Underground Coal Gasification

Underground coal gasification is an industrial

process which converts coal into product gas.
Gasification process is carried out in non-
mined coal seams using injection of oxidants,
and bringing the product gas to surface
through production wells drilled from the
surface.
The product gas can be used as a chemical
feedstock or as Fuel for power generation.
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 Cont.

The technique can be applied to resources that

are otherwise unprofitable or technically
complicated to extract by traditional methods,
and it also offers an alternative to conventional
coal mining methods

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 References

Miller, B. G., Coal Energy Systems, Elsevier

Academic Press. 2005
▪ Chapter no. 5

M. L. de Souza-Santos, Solid Fuels Combustion and

Gasification, Marcel Dekker, Inc. 2004
▪ Chapter no. 2

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Thank You