A Novel Concept for Preferential Production of Methane Rich Syngas from Coal Gasification

The overall objective of this multi-phase SBIR project is to develop a coal gasifier concept that yields higher methane (CH4) concentration in the syngas without compromising on the heating value of the syngas. Higher concentration of CH4 in syngas is desirable because it has higher calorific value (per unit mass) than any other hydrocarbon. In addition, utilization of the CH4 rich syngas in fuel cells facilitates better control of fuel cell stack temperature which improves power generation efficiency. However, existing commercial gasifiers predominantly produce CO and H2 rich syngas that contains minimal amount of CH4. In order to obtain high heating value syngas with preferential production of CH4, this proposal proposes to gasify coal in combination with a renewable, liquid, waste feedstock in a novel gasification process design. The proposed liquid feedstock is rich in oxygen which reduces amount of oxygen needed to carry out the gasification process and thus the cost. In addition, CPS conducted a 1-D kinetic and equilibrium calculation which showed that the renewable feedstock reduces tar formation, and helps in achieving higher heating value and CH4 in the syngas. To successfully develop the proposed coal gasification concept, multiple lab-scales, pilot-scale tests along with extensive analyses and computational modeling will be carried out in this three phase proposal. Phase I of the proposal will show a