Page 83 - New Trends In Coal Conversion

Current status of CO 2 capture from coal facilities 49

The largest CCUS project from coal conversion, with a capacity of 3 Mt/y, is the
Synfuels Plant that produces synthetic natural gas from lignite gasification. CO 2 is
captured using a Rectisol® unit, which produces a dry product with 96% CO 2 .
8,000 t/d of CO 2 , which is approximately 2/3 of the production at full rate, are sent
through a 330 km pipeline to Saskatchewan, Canada, for use in EOR in the Weyburn
and Midale fields. Since EOR started in 2000, over 35 Mt of CO 2 had been injected
from a total expected amount of 60 Mt. Urea fertilizer production with a capacity of
100 t/d and with the ability to shift production to diesel exhaust fluid and a CO 2 lique-
faction facility will provide extra revenue of surplus CO 2 from 2018.
CO 2 emissions from Chinese CTC industry are expected to reach 409 Mt/y in
2020. Part of this CO 2 could be used for EOR in nearby reservoirs replacing water,
whichisalimitedresource(GCCSI, 2015). Yanchang Integrated CCS Demonstration
Project aims to capture 0.41 Mt CO 2 /y by the Rectisol® process from two gasification
facilities that convert local coal into syngas that is later used for the production of
methanol, acetic acid, olefins, polyethylene, and polypropylene. The first facility
for CO 2 removal, compression, and liquefaction, with a capacity of 0.05 Mt/y, was
completed in late 2012, and the second, with a capacity of 0.36 Mt/y, is expected
by 2018. Liquefied CO 2 is transported by tanker trucks for EOR at the Yanchang
oil field.

2.5.2 CO 2 capture in coal-to-liquids industry
China has rich coal resources but lacks oil and gas; the coal-to-liquids (CTL) technol-
ogy rose as a consequence of increasing oil price, but regulators suspended new pro-
jects in 2008 after oil prices retreated and concerns were raised about the CTL
feasibility and the deployment of a highly water-intensive technology in some of
China’s most arid regions. According to guidelines issued in 2015, CTL plants in
China are permitted to use a maximum of 3.7 t of coal per t of oil produced, and
they should prioritize the use of low-quality coals to reduce their use elsewhere.
The Shenhua Ordos CCS project stored 0.3 Mt of CO 2 from direct coal liquefaction
into a deep saline formation between 2011 and 2015. The CO 2 , already concentrated at
the inlet of the capture unit (80%), was compressed, desulfurized, dehydrated by TSA,
frozen, liquefied, distilled, and deeply refrigerated before sending it to the storage ves-
sels with a purity of 99%. Liquefied CO 2 was then transported 11 km by road and
injected through a well of 2.5 km (Zhang et al., 2016).
The biggest CTL plant in the world, built in by Ningdong Energy-Chemical Indus-
try Base in Ningxia, China, went into production in December 2016. It is able to turn
20 Mt of coal into 4 Mt of oil annually. The firm aims to boost capacity to 11 Mt/y by
2020. In the Shenhua Ningxia CTL Project, 2 Mt/y CO 2 will be captured by physical
absorption and transported 200e250 km by pipeline to the storage site by 2020.

2.5.3 CO 2 capture in the iron and steel sector

Global steel production is highly dependent on coal, which is used for coke produc-
tion, for combustion in the blast furnace, for sinter production, for steam and electricity