Page 231 - New Trends In Coal Conversion

Current status of coal gasification 193

7.2.3.5 Germany

As far as the authors’ knowledge, there is no positive news about big projects or power
plants related to coal gasification activities. For example, the CCS project on an IGCC
lignite-fueled power plant in Hurth, with an expected capacity of 450 MW, has been
cancelled/delayed. The reason is the current regulatory framework in Germany that
considerably tightens the existing CCS directive of the European Union (EU), what
made impossible the construction of CO 2 storage facilities. Therefore, it was neither
viable nor reasonable to erect a power plant designed for CCS or an associated pipeline
for CO 2 transport. For this reason, RWE has discontinued this project until further
notice (Wolf, n.d.).

7.2.3.6 Poland
The most important mineral resource in Poland is hard coal (mainly located in Upper
Silesia and the Lublin coal basins), being the ninth largest hard coal producer and the
largest one in the EU. Besides, Poland also has significant deposits of lignite, located in
Turoszow, Konin, and Belchat ow (Mills, 2016). Therefore, coal plays a major role in
Poland’s energy security, providing the reliable and affordable energy supply that is
fundamental to Poland’s economic stability and ongoing development, as
85%e90% of the electricity and heat generated in Poland is produced from local
coal (Gawlik and Mokrzycki, 2016; Sobolewski, 2016).
Based on the new technology developed by the “Institute for Chemical Processing
of Coal”, a new coal gasification project has been proposed by Grupa Azoty. The proj-
ect was approved by the Polish government in June 2015, and the start date is expected
to be 2020e21 (Sciazko et al., 2014; Skoupka and Sciazko, 2016; Sobolewski, 2016;
Sobolewski et al., 2015; SourceWatch, 2015).
As in many other countries, in addition to IGCC technologies, another approach
studied in Poland to coal gasification process is underground coal gasification
(UCG). Some interesting works have been carried out by the GIG’s Clean Coal
Technology Centre (Gl owny Instytut G ornictwa, translated as “Central Mining
Institute”), both in Katowice and Mikol ow, to finally conduct a pilot test in the oper-
ated mine KWK Wieczorek. After a 3-month trial, the results have been very prom-
ising and, consequently, a technological project of UCG demonstration installation
has been proposed (Sta nczyk, 2015, 2016; Sta nczyk et al., 2015).

7.2.3.7 Czech Republic

7.2.3.7.1 Vrêsova IGCC Plant
Even if several IGCC plants closed in Europe in the last years, the Vrêsova IGCC Plant
is a perfect example (Fig. 7.5) of how this technology is still used nowadays, being one
of the world’s largest coal-fired IGCC plants.
Vrêsova’s plant was built in the 1960s, and it was converted to a 400 MWe
combined-cycled power plant in 1996. The gasification units consist of 26 Lurgi-
type fixed bed gasifiers and 1 entrained-flow gasifier from Siemens, which gasifies
the tars produced and consumes around 2000 tons/day of local lignite to produce a