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Complete FastOx System & Plant - Sierra Energy
Complete FastOx System & Plant - Sierra Energy
Complete FastOx System & Plant - Sierra Energy
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TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS COMPANY MEDIA CONTACT US
These components can be summarized as component isles: preprocessing, gasification, additional gas cleaning (if ne
for back end system), utilities sub-system, and back end system.
Continue reading for a more detailed description of the complete gasification system. Privacy - Terms
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Gasification TProcess
ECHNOLOGY
Overview
PROJECTS COMPANY MEDIA CONTACT US
Preprocessing
After waste materials are delivered to the site, they are sent to a shredder and sized appropriately for the diameter
gasifier (for more information, please see Feedstock). The FastOx gasifier requires minimal pre-treatment of feedsto
because it can handle high-moisture contents (up to 50% by weight.) Competing technologies, such as fluidized bed
gasifiers and other downdraft gasifiers, require extensive feedstock handling processes to dry the waste streams to
maximum of 10% to 20% by weight.
Gasification
After the waste is shredded, it is fed into the top of the FastOx gasifier via conveyor belt. At the top of the gasifier, th
waste is held in an airlock chamber prior to discharging into the vessel. The residence time of feedstock is controlled
supply of injected oxygen and steam at the bottom of the gasifier. By injecting oxygen, FastOx gasification increases
efficiencies and avoids many of the environmental impacts associated with iron-making blast furnaces, which commo
inject nitrogen-rich ambient air.
Next, the waste descends through the gasifier by gravity through four reaction zones: drying, devolatilization, gasific
and melting. The process produces high-quality syngas, liquid metal, and inert stone. The syngas rises up to the top
vessel and moves on to the syngas conditioning process, while the molten liquid metal and vitrified stone descend to
bottom of the gasifier.
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Pre-Drying – Rotary-Kiln dryers provide a low-maintenance and consistent method of obtaining an optimum feed
material content Tusing
E C H Nwaste
O L O G Yheat from
P R O J the
E C T Splant to
C Opre-dry
M P A N Y the high-moisture
MEDIA C Owaste
N T A C Tmaterials.
US
Shredder – Shredders mechanically shear the material to less than a system-specified nominal dimension (typica
less than 3”).
However, more complicated waste streams, such as those that contain hazardous materials or medical waste, may re
additional measures to ensure proper handling of these materials, which may require additional equipment. These
additional measures are primarily to ensure the safety of the personnel handling the waste and are not necessarily
required for the actual gasification process.
Gasification Isle
The FastOx gasification isle consists of the following:
Charging system
Gasifier
Oxygen and steam injectants
Polisher
Recuperator
Charging System
The purpose of the charging system is to feed waste into the gasifier. As the feedstock ascends the conveyor belt fro
preprocessing section to the gasifier, it first enters a weigh hopper that collects waste up to a certain quantity. Once
quantity is reached, the weigh hopper releases waste into the airlock on top of the gasifier vessel. This airlock has th
valves to monitor and govern the addition of waste into the gasifier, as well as the escape of syngas out of the gasifi
vessel. The “flap” valve, which is the closest to the gasifier, is the ultimate gateway for feedstock into the actual vess
top-most valve, known as the upper slide gate, seals off the waste from the ambient environment. In-between these
lower slide gate valve, which acts as a fail-safe precaution.
The flap valve is closed while the weigh hopper fills. Once the weigh hopper is full of feedstock, the conveyor stops a
lower slide gate opens. Once the lower slide gate is confirmed to be open, the upper slide gate opens, and the weigh
hopper releases waste into the airlock. The upper and lower slide gates then close and seal the feedstock off from th
ambient environment.
Once the gates are confirmed to be closed, the airlock is purged with nitrogen gas. Next, the flap valve opens and th
feedstock is released into the gasifier. As the feed leaves the airlock, syngas flows into it before the flap valve is clos
order to prevent the syngas from escaping to the atmosphere upon the next opening of the upper slide gate, the air
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purged with nitrogen gas. During this process, the flap valve is closed so that all syngas present flows to the onsite f
T E Cof
Once the airlock is free H Nsyngas
O L O G Yand full
P Rof
O J Enitrogen,
CTS C O Mupper
the P A N Y slide Mgate
E D I Aopens Cto
O Nreceive
T A C T Uthe
S next load of feedstoc
Gasifier
The gasifier vessel’s structural components are predominately composed of the metal shell, refractory, cooling plate
taphole. The exterior shell is comprised of carbon steel. The shell’s interior is lined with refractory. The refractory is
into three sections to accommodate the various temperatures and operating conditions seen throughout the vessel.
Refractory type of each zone is chosen based on that zone’s requirements.
The cooling plates are present to help regulate the gasifier vessel temperature, providing one of two temperature co
methods. The second cooling method employed is steam injection, which can moderate temperature gains caused b
oxygen injection.
Each gasifier is equipped with a taphole for the purpose of removing molten vitrified stone from the gasifier base. Si
opening the taphole allows for the inert stone to flow out due to the low viscosity of the molten vitrified stone as we
the slightly higher pressure inside the gasifier. The metals and inorganic materials separate in the collector due the
comparatively higher density of the metal.
In some cases, it may be strategic to employ the use of a continuous tapper, which allows for a constant, steady stat
of inert stone from the system. The continuous tapper would attach to the taphole, and the molten inert stone prod
and metals would flow into a water bath for cooling. Alternatively, they could be air cooled. The best method to use
depend upon the exact nature of the project in question.
Oxygen
Oxygen can be purchased or generated from atmospheric air using a cryogenic air separation unit (ASU). Unlike the
arc gasification technology, FastOx gasifiers release energy from the reaction between the oxygen and residual char.
the only electricity required is that to power the ASU.
The purity of the oxygen depends on specific project goals such as the desired end product for the syngas produced
project is focused on the production of electricity, the purity of the oxygen only needs to be above 60% by volume. If
renewable fuel is chosen as the end-product, the purity of the oxygen should be above 90% by volume because FT ca
work better with minimal nitrogen or diluents in the syngas.
Steam
Steam can be self-sufficiently generated by the FastOx system by utilizing both recovered water and recovered sensi
heat from hot syngas. The recovered water (moisture) is removed from the incoming waste streams in the “drying” zo
Water is separated from the syngas in the gas cleaning isle, and recycled back to the FastOx gasifier’s steam feed.
The extent of the impact of these steam-recycling methods will be highly dependent on the initial moisture content o
feedstock in question. It is most likely that the steam recycling will help reduce the amount of water being pulled fro
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CO + H 2 O → H 2 + CO 2
The amount of steam injected into the WGS reactor is continuously controlled to provide optimal hydrogen to carbon
monoxide ratios (H 2 /CO) in the outlet syngas. The WGS reaction is a mildly exothermic reaction and excess heat is re
from the shifted syngas with a waste-heat boiler (heat exchanger) that makes high-pressure steam.
Excess hydrogen from the post-WGS is removed via a hydrogen membrane module. The hydrogen is then transferred
pressure swing adsorption (PSA) module for purification.
Fischer-Tropsch Diesel
The Fischer-Tropsch or FT system converts syngas through a series of chemical reactions over a catalyst (typically co
and iron) to produce sulfur-free and aromatic-free renewable diesel. The diesel we produce is twenty times cleaner t
the ultra-low sulfur diesel standards in California.
When aiming for long-chain products such as renewable diesel, FT synthesis requires typical operating conditions of
temperatures of 200–250°C (400-480°F) and pressures of 25–60 bar. The polymerization-like chain growth reaction re
in a range of products comprising light hydrocarbons, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), naphtha, diesel, and wax fractio
The distribution of the products depends on the catalyst composition and the process operation conditions.
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In general, the discharge of the FT reactor contains byproduct water (pressurized to stay in the liquid form), low mol
weight hydrocarbons T(gases),
E C H N O Land
O G Ya wideP Rrange
O J E C Tof
S liquid
C Ohydrocarbons
MPANY Mthat
E D I Ainclude
C Onaphtha,
N T A C T U Sdiesel, and wax cuts. A
phase separator on the discharge end of the FT reactor separates the gases, the liquid hydrocarbons, and the water.
tail-gas can be recycled to the FastOx gasifier or used to generate additional electricity on site. The almost-pure wate
cooled and used within the plant and the liquid hydrocarbons continue on to the fractionator. The fractionator then
separates appropriate fractions of the liquid hydrocarbons leaving the final desired product in the proper
quantities.To learn more about the production and economics of diesel through FastOx gasification, click here.
Hydrogen
The production of hydrogen from syngas is one of the easiest renewable products to be formed with a FastOx gasifie
our syngas typically contains over 25% by volume of hydrogen even before the WGS reactions. To learn more about t
production and economics of hydrogen through FastOx gasification, click here.
Utilities Sub-Systems
This subsystem reflects the ancillary utilities that support FastOx gasifiers. A complete FastOx gasification system ma
require ancillary utilities to facilitate the conversions and reactions in each isle/module. FastOx systems require the
to place heat into specific components of the system and remove heat from others.
The following are examples of ancillary utilities that would be required at a waste processing facility, note that some
these may already exist onsite if the FastOx system were to be placed at an existing industrial site:
Oxygen Supply – used for the FastOx gasification and polishing processes. Can obtain oxygen from either liquid
or an Air Separation Unit (ASU) which separates oxygen from atmospheric air and compresses it to the pressure
required by the FastOx gasifier
Plant Air – small amounts of compressed air are used for instrumentation of valves and for start-up procedures
Steam system – steam is produced using recovered water from wet waste and heat recovered from the plant (fo
example, using water to remove heat from the syngas during the Gas Cleanup stage). All produced steam is colle
and metered from a central steam isle
Cooling System – necessary for regulating the temperatures of specific pieces of equipment (such as the Fischer
Tropsch reactor in diesel production) by use of either water or air
Heat Supply – fuel gases are needed to supply necessary heat to specific system components such as heating ve
drying materials, start-up procedure, etc. All FastOx systems will be designed to recycle clean syngas to complet
offset the need for any fossil fuels (LPG, natural gas etc.)
Fire Suppression System – nitrogen purging to act as an emergency shut-off
General Safety Equipment – analyzers strategically placed throughout the system to assist with the monitoring o
performance, including temperature sensors, flame and heat detectors, and gas analyzers
TECHNOLOGY
FastOx Gasification
Licensing
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