Novel technology offers significant capital cost, thermal efficiency improvements for gasification for power and chemical applications

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. (Oct. 8, 2008) – RTI International and Eastman Chemical Company signed an agreement to develop and commercialize a jointly developed synthetic gas (syngas) clean-up technology.

The novel high-temperature technology package provides a modular approach to the removal of various contaminants contained in syngas derived from coal and petroleum coke, leading to significantly higher thermal efficiency and reduced capital and operating costs and hence reducing the cost of power produced in gasification-based power plants.

Gasification is a process through which carbon-based materials such as coal, petroleum coke, and biomass are converted into syngas that can be used to efficiently produce clean electricity, transportation fuels, and chemicals using domestic fuel resources. Cost-effective syngas clean-up technology is a key to achieving near-zero emissions from gasification-based power generation and chemical plants. Additionally, gasification-based systems provide the lowest cost option for capturing and sequestering CO2 from coal use.

Under terms of the agreement, the parties have combined the intellectual property resulting from the collaboration and are offering the technology package for further scale-up and commercialization.

Components of the technology package include a high-temperature desulphurization process that uses transport reactors, an attrition-resistant regenerable zinc oxide based sorbent, a fixed-bed catalytic process for converting sulfur dioxide produced during the sorbent regeneration into elemental sulfur, and fixed-bed reactor processes for removal of other syngas contaminants.

The technology was developed by RTI at laboratory and bench-scale over more than a decade with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy/National Energy Technology Laboratory.

In 2004 the technology entered a pre-commercial pilot phase when Eastman Chemical Company joined the development.  Development efforts eventually culminated in more than 3,000 hours of field testing with actual coal-derived syngas at Eastman’s Kingsport, Tennessee, gasification facility earlier this year. These tests further demonstrated the potential of the technology package to significantly reduce both capital and operating costs of an overall gasification-based power plant.

“We are delighted that RTI International and Eastman Chemical Company have reached an agreement to continue to develop and commercialize their high temperature synthesis gas cleaning technologies,” said Gary Stiegel, gasification technology manager at DOE’s Fossil Energy/National Energy Technology Laboratory. “Sought by many throughout the world for nearly three decades, these vitally important technologies have reached the stage of maturity where their expected benefits have been confirmed at an industrially-relevant scale of operation on coal-derived synthesis gas.  Through substantial reductions in capital cost, enhanced process efficiency, and near-zero emissions, these technologies will facilitate the deployment of IGCC and other gasification-based plants in the years ahead.”

The current technology package is fully developed for an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant. Comprehensive techno-economic evaluation of the technology package with a reference IGCC plant showed about 3 to 4 point improvement in overall thermal efficiency, which increases the amount of electricity produced from the same amount of coal by about 10 percent.  This technology package also reduces overall capital costs by 10 to 15 percent.

DOE’s Fossil Energy/National Energy Technology Laboratory continues to support RTI research and development efforts to integrate the technology package for production of fuels and chemicals, where contaminant removal requirements are very stringent. RTI’s current program includes development of a high-temperature process for removal of CO2 from syngas to produce a sequestration ready CO2 stream, with a goal of seamless integration of CO2 removal in the high-temperature syngas cleanup system. 

RTI and Eastman Chemical Company will provide an overview of the technology components at the Gasification Technologies Conference in Washington, D.C., later this week.  

RTI has retained the investment banking firm Ventura Group, LLC to facilitate a formal technology divestiture process which will be initiated immediately following the conference.   

About RTI International
RTI International is one of the world's leading research institutes, dedicated to improving the human condition by turning knowledge into practice. We have more than 3,800 professionals providing research and technical services to governments and businesses in more than 40 countries in the areas of health and pharmaceuticals, education and training, surveys and statistics, advanced technology, international development, economic and social policy, energy, and the environment.