1Introduction

Fuel sources are the sources which are combustible and energy generating molecular species that can be
used to create mechanical energy. Petroleum based fuels are serving the industry and consumers for more
than one hundred years. There has been rapid increase in demand in many countries. However, the time
is running out and these fuel sources are being quickly decreasing. In every year supplies of crude oil are
being depleted with every year passes. Thus, alternate technologies to produce liquid fuels are needed
for the replacement of petroleum. This can help for mitigate the upcoming effects of shortage of
transportation fuels suggested by Hubbert peak oil theory. This theory states that amount of oil under the
ground is finite and production rate of fuels are increasing due to discovery and infrastructure. To
ameliorate for depletion of supplies unconventional (or nonpetroleum derived) fuels are of vital
importance. Nonconventional fuel source are alternate or synthetic fuels other than traditional petroleum
fuels.

An alternative fuels or synthetic fuels are derived from available fuel or energy sources. The production
of alternative fuels has never got much further than starting gate. The reason behind this is so small price
fluctuations of crude oil and lack of interests of levels of government. The maintained price of fuels at a
certain level discouraged the establishment of such alternative fuels. The dynamics are now changing and
better conditions for establishment of synthetic fuels industry and it is up to level of government to
promote the available and variable technology.

Different synthetic fuels are obtained by converting carbonaceous material to another form. Naturally
occurring material suitable for this type of action are Tar sand, Coal and oil shale. These converted fuels
can take place of depleted, unavailable and costly supplies of natural fuels. Currently, synthetic fuels
production is less efficient and have some greater environmental impact relative to petroleum
production. These synthetic fuels may be increasingly relied upon as fuel for transportation as price of
conventional fuels increases and supplies dwindle. However, petroleum sources of liquid fuel are
preferred because they give much high extracted energy used in extraction and refining processes.

Rising in prices of petroleum once again have given greater interest in using coal to manufacture different
fuels of various composition like liquid and gaseous fuels. These synthetic fuels have the potential to
displaced the petroleum derived gasoline and diesel fuels. Coal-to-liquids technology is already getting a
vital importance in different commercial applications of various countries. Coal-to-liquid technique is only
feasible when the fuel prices are well over $100 per barrel. These studies suggest that using coal to
produce liquid fuels can cause the large transfer of wealth from oil consumers to oil producers,
thus providing significant benefit to many countries which have large reserves of coal. However,
without managing of carbon dioxide, the use of coal-derived liquids to replace petroleum fuels for
transportation will be difficult due to double amount of greenhouse-gas emissions.
Table 1 Difference between conventional and nonconventional oils

Conventional oil Nonconventional oil

Low viscosity fuels, Mobile High viscosity, immobile in natural state

Motion is caused by their own or by pumping First mined or heated-decomposed and then
pumped
Component water may be present that must be Great amount of water required up to 3bbl for
disposed of every barrel of oil produced

Very high discovery costs and low production Locations known; very high production costs
costs

Production readily increases, peaks and declines Steady production for next 100 years

Mostly influence foreign policy Allow energy independence

1.1Hictorical development of Coal Liquefaction:

Coal is a fossil fuel and formed as an organic sediment in the swamp ecosystem where the organic matter
like plant remains were saved by water and mud from oxidization & biodegradation. Coal is a combustible
brownish-black or black organic rock and mainly composed of carbon along with some other elements
including sulfur. Coal is extracted from ground by mining, either open-pit mining or underground mining.
As geological process apply pressure to the peat for passage of time, it is transformed into different forms
of coal. The forms are consists of: (a)Lignite-also known as brown coal and is the lowest rank of coal and
used for gasification & electric power generation; (b)sub-bituminous coal-whose property varies in the
range of lignite and bituminous coal and used as a fuel for power generation; (c) bituminous coal-a more
black and dense coal, is often bright and dull material used for power generation applications and in
making of coke; (d) Anthracite is the highest in rank of coal and is black material and used for residential
and commercial space heating.

The crude oil price has been increasing in twenty-first century and there are chances that high crude oil
price is here to stay. Even after considering the various aspects in economic factors involving energy
industries, production of transportation fuels Via coal liquefaction is surely an outstanding option for
sustainable future. Furthermore, the products obtained from coal liquefaction can be refined and
formulated to possess the required properties of conventional transportation fuels and requiring no
additional change in distribution nor lifestyle changes in consumers. There are some important advantage
with the conversion of coal to liquid products since coal liquefaction can produce clean fuels that can also
be used as transportation fuels such as gasoline and diesel.

There are mainly three routes by which liquid fuels can be prepared from solid coal: (a) direct conversion
to liquids, (b) direct hydrogenation of coal and (c) indirect conversion to coal.
Coal liquification process were first use in Germany during the world war 1 and world war 2. The direct
liquification process yielded small amount of propane and butane, a synthetic naphtha, small amount of
ammonia and significant amount of carbon dioxide. The current process requirement of coal liquification
by direct method are primarily on easing operating process with minimizing hydrogen requirement and
making the product friendly to environment. Due to the current rise and fluctuation in price of petroleum
in the world market, some favorable process economics of coal liquification are under consideration.
Considering the large deposits of coal worldwide, This alternatives is even moral attractive and also very
practical.

Coal can also be converted into liquid fuels by indirect coal liquification which involves gasification of coal
to mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (synthesis gas) followed by application of Fischer-Tropsch
process in which synthesis gas is converted to hydrocarbons of various compositions under catalytic
conditions of temperature and pressure. Fisher-Tropsch process for production of synthetic fuels is an
established technology. In this process fossil fuels or biomass are converted in to the required products
of syngas via steam reforming, auto thermal reforming or gasification.

The indirect coal liquification process was used in Germany for many years and is currently used by Sasol
in South Africa. In this process coal is gasified to produce the syngas which is mixture of carbon monoxide
and hydrogen and then syngas is condensed using the Fischer-Tropsch process with help of catalysts to
produce low boiling hydrocarbons which are further processed into gasoline and diesel. So the syngas
produced can also be converted to methanol, which can be used as additive in fuels or can be further
processed foe production of gasoline.

South Africa has constructed this plant for manufacturing of liquids fuels from coal during the past 50
years. The product mixture consists of 80 percent diesel and 20 percent naphtha. Countries like china
have expressed their interest in advanced version of this plant for conversion process. A number of small
projects of coal liquification have already started operation or are under construction.

Many of methods use for the production of fuels from coal as well as conversion of coal to syngas release
carbon dioxide during the process far more than is released in process of liquids fuels from petroleum. If
coal liquification process are being adopted then carbon dioxide will increase on global scale. Hence
drastic measures will be needed and some carbon capture process are under development to avoid the
release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, though no pilot plant is being running on wide scale.
However, this will add cost of synthetic fuels.

1.2Synthetic Fuels:
The production of synthetic fuel is the process of addition of hydrogen. Fuels like natural gas and gasoline
have greater atomic hydrogen to carbon ratio on the order of 2.0 while some other fuel sources have low
atomic hydrogen to carbon ratio on order of 1.0 to 1.5. The addition of hydrogen can be accomplished by
source of hydrogen from coal residing coke is produced or by adding hydrogen from external source.

On the one hand, this is achieved by pyrolysis of feedstock in the absence of oxygen to produce high
volatile (high hydrogen) products and low volatile (low hydrogen) coke. In this process, the carbon content
is reduced by heating the raw hydrocarbon until thermally decomposes to yield the products like solid
carbon, together with gases and liquids having high fraction of hydrogen content than the original
material.

On the other hand, the addition of hydrogen by external source id the hydrogenation by direct or indirect
method. In direct hydrogenation, raw material is exposed to hydrogen at high pressure. Indirect
hydrogenation is carried out by reaction of feed stock with steam, and hydrogen is generated within the
system. Thus, different type of gaseous and liquid fuels are obtained by converting the raw material at
desired conditions. The conversion of coal and oil shale is carried out to produce fuels of various types to
replace depleted, unavailable or costly supplies of natural gas. The conversion can also take place to
remove the sulfur or nitrogen content to avoid air pollutants. Another reason may include to increase the
calorific value of original raw material by removing unwanted components and produce a fuel which is
cheaper to transport and handle.

Synthetic fuels are attractive relative to conventional based fuels due to followings:

Raw material for synthetic fuel is available in quantities enough to meet current demand for
centuries.
Raw material used for production of synthetic fuels do not need any additional refining steps
such as reforming and cracking.
The distribution of synthetic fuels is already in place.

1.3Production of Synthetic Fuels:

1.3.1Thermal decomposition:
The production of fuels from alternative sources like coal involves a degree of thermal conversion. In many
cases thermal decomposition is often used as mean liquid production by thermal decomposition but
gaseous and solid product may also be produced. For example, pyrolysis is the decomposition of organic
matter by heat in absence of air. Thermal decomposition is for breakdown of organic compounds.
Synthetic fuel production develops on liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons.

Thermal decomposition is one method to produce liquid fuels from coal. Moreover, as gasification and
liquefaction are carried out at elevated temperature. Pyrolysis may be considered a first stage in
conversion process. In production of synthetic fuels is the prediction of the rate and amount of volatile
yield. Other variables include composition of organic matter as well as composition of ambient gas in
which it takes place. Among physical variables are final temperature, the time and rate of heating, particle
size distribution.

1.3.2Gasification:
Gasification is the conversion of solid or liquid into gas at high temperature in controlled amount of
oxygen. Coal gasification refers to overall process of converting coal to product gas, including initial
pyrolysis and subsequent gas thermal upgrading steps. The resulting gas mixture (synthesis gas, syngas)
is a fuel. The syngas combusts cleanly into water vapor and carbon dioxide. Syngas may be converted to
methane via any type of process. The advantage of syngas is using syngas is more efficient than direct
combustion, as more of the energy is extracted. Gasification is done on elevated temperature of 700 C.
gasification uses a variety of feed stocks, produces wide variety of products and efficient method of
extracting energy.

1.3.3The Fischer-Tropsch Process:

The Fischer-Tropsch process is a catalyzed chemical reaction in which carbon monoxide and hydrogen are
converted into liquid hydrocarbons of various forms. Typical catalysts used are based on Iron and Cobalt.
The principle purpose of this process is to produce a synthetic petroleum substitute for use as synthetic
fuel. The process is currently used in South Africa to produce liquid fuels from syngas.

Chemically, the Fischer-Tropsch process is represented as conversion of carbon monoxide and hydrogen
to hydrocarbons and water.

n(CO) + (2n+1)H2 CnH(2n+2) + nH2O

The initial reactants in above reaction can be produced by other reaction and by also gasification of coal
or biomass. The energy needed for this endothermic reaction of coal and steam is usually provided by
exothermic combustion with air or oxygen.

The mixture carbon monoxide and hydrogen is called syngas. The resulting hydrocarbon products are
refined to produce desired synthetic fuel. The carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide is generated by partial
oxidation of coal and wood based fuels. If a liquid fuel, lubricant, or wax is required, the Fischer-Tropsch
can be applied successfully in manufacture.

Part of the issue with the Fischer-Tropsch process is that it produces a mixture of hydrocarbonsmany of
which are not useful as fuel. However, the use of molecularly- specific catalysts to convert these
undesirable hydrocarbons into specific liquid fuels is established. These catalysts work by rearranging the
carbon atoms, transforming six-carbon atom hydrocarbons, for example, into two- and ten-carbon atom
hydrocarbons. The liquid fuels produced in this way have several potential advantages not the least of
which is the absence of the odiferous, particle-producing aromatics. The liquid fuels formed by the
Fischer-Tropsch process burn much cleaner and are environmentally more acceptable.

1.4Coal Gasification Techniques:

Gasification can be thought of as a combustion process in which sufficient air is supplied to allow a portion
of the carbonaceous feed material to bum. The heat that is generated is used to de-volatize and
decomposes the majority of the remaining feed material into hydrocarbon gases. The gas stream
produced is a mixture of the inert flue gases and hydrocarbons. This producer gas, or syngas, has a calorific
value (CV). The gas stream generally contains a large portion of nitrogen, which can be up to 60%, as a
result of using air.

Gasification can be defined as: A process that converts carbonaceous materials such as coal, petroleum,
bio fuel or bio mass into carbon monoxide and hydrogen by reacting the raw materials such have house
waste or compost at elevated temperatures with a controlled amount of oxygen and/or steam is called
gasification. The resulting gas mixture is called synthesis gas or syngas and is itself a fuel.
 The manufacture of combustible gases from solid fuels is an ancient art but by no means a forgotten
one. In its widest sense, the term gasification covers the conversation of any carbonaceous fuel to a
gaseous product with useable heating values. This definition excludes combustion because the product
flu gas has no residual heating value. It does include the technologies of pyrolysis, partial oxidation and
hydrogenation. Early technologies heavily depended on pyrolysis (i.e. the application of heat to
feedstock in the absence of oxygen) but this is of less importance in gas production today. The dominant
technology is partial oxidation, which produces from the fuel a synthesis gas (otherwise known as
syngas) consisting of hydrogen and carbon monoxide in varying ratios, whereby the oxidant may be pure
oxygen, air and/or steam.

Attractive features of technology include:

The ability to produce a consistent product that can be used for the generation of
electricity or as primary building blocks for manufactures of chemicals and
transportation fuels.
The ability to process a wide range of feedstock including coal, heavy oils, petroleum
coke, heavy refinery residuals, refinery wastes, hydrocarbon contaminated soils,
biomass and agriculture wastes.
The ability to remove contaminants in the feedstock and to produce a clean syngas.
The ability to convert wastes or low value products to higher value products. The ability
to minimize the amount of solids. Solids by product have a market value can be used as
a fuel or construction materials and are non-hazardous.

Some processes employ oxygen or steam to provide the necessary oxygen. These systems produce a gas
stream with a much higher CV. However, this introduces both additional costs and safety issues.

Gasification can be carried out in many different types of reactors including:

Moving Bed
Fluidized Bed
Entrained Flow

1.4.1Moving Bed Gasifier:

Moving bed gasifiers (sometimes called fixed bed gasifiers) are characterized by a bed in which the coal
moves slowly downward under gravity as it is gasified, generally by a counter current blast. In such a
counter-current arrangement, the hot synthesis gas from the gasification zone is used to preheat and
pyrolyse the downward flowing coal. With this process the oxygen consumption is very low but pyrolysis
products are present in the product synthesis gas. The outlet temperature of the synthesis gas is generally
low, even if high slagging temperatures are reached in the heart of the bed. Moving bed processes operate
on lump coal. An excessive amount of fines, particularly if the coal has strong caking properties, can block
the passage of the up flowing syngas. Figure 2.1 describes the process of moving bed gasifier and variation
of temperature along the length of gasifier.
 Figure 1.1: moving bed gasifier.

Moving bed gasifiers have the following characteristics:

Low oxidant requirements

Production of hydrocarbon liquids, such as tars and oils
High cold-gas thermal efficiency, when the heating value of the hydrocarbon liquids is included
Limited ability to handle fines

1.4.2Fuidized Bed Gasifier:

Fluidized bed gasifiers offer extremely good mixing between feed and oxidant, which promotes both heat
and mass transfer. This ensures an even distribution of material in the bed, and hence a certain amount
of only partially reacted fuel is inevitably removed with the ash. This places a limitation on the carbon
conversion of fluidized bed processes. The operation of fluidized bed gasifiers is generally restricted to
temperatures below the softening point of the ash, since ash slagging will disturb the fluidization of the
bed. Some attempts have been made to operate into the ash-softening zone to promote a limited and
controlled agglomeration of ash with the aim of increasing carbon conversion. Sizing of the particles in
the feed is critical; material that is too fine will tend to become entrained in the syngas and leave the bed
overhead. This is usually partially captured in a cyclone and returned to the bed. The lower temperature
operation of fluidized bed processes means that they are more suited for gasifying reactive feed stocks,
such as low rank coals and biomass. Figure 2.2 describes the process of fluidized bed gasifier and variation
of temperature along the length of gasifier.

Figure 1.2: Fluidized bed gasifier.

Fluidized bed gasifiers have the following characteristics:

Accept a wide range of solid feed stocks, including solid waste, wood, and high ash coals
Uniform, moderate temperature
Moderate oxygen and steam requirements
Extensive char recycling

1.4.3Entrained Flow Gasifier:

Entrained flow gasifiers operate with feed and blast in co-current flow. The residence time in these
processes is short (a few seconds). The feed is ground to a size of 100 pm or less to promote mass transfer
and allow transport in the gas. Gives the short residence time, high temperatures are required to ensure
a good conversion, and therefore all entrained flow gasifiers operate in the slagging range. The high
temperature operation creates a high oxygen demand for this type of process. Entrained flow gasifiers do
not have any specific technical limitations on the type of coal used, although coals with a high moisture
or ash content will drive the oxygen consumption to levels where alternative processes may have and
economic advantage. Figure 2.3 describes the process of entrained flow gasifier and variation of
temperature along the length of gasifier.
 Figure 2.3: Entrained flow gasifier

Entrained flow gasifiers have the following characteristics:

Ability to gasify all coals, regardless of rank, caking characteristics, or amount of fines, although
feed stocks with lower ash content are favored
Uniform temperature
Very short feed residence time in the gasifier
Solid fuel must be very finely divided and homogeneous
Relatively large oxidant requirement
Large amount of sensible heat in the raw gas
High temperature slagging operation
Entrainment of some ash (slag) in the raw gas
The main characteristics of three types of gasification processes are described in table 1.2.
1.5Liquefaction Processes:
More recently, other processes have been developed for the conversion of coal to liquid fuels. The Fischer-
Tropsch process of indirect synthesis of liquid hydrocarbons (Fig. 5.16) was used in Nazi Germany for many
years and is today used by Sasol in South Africa. Coal would be gasified to make syngas (a balanced purified
mixture of CO and H2 gas) and the syngas condensed using Fischer-Tropsch catalysts to make light
hydrocarbons which are further processed into gasoline and diesel. Syngas can also be converted to
methanol, which can be used as a fuel, fuel additive, or further processed into gasoline via the Mobil M-
gas process.

1.5.1Catalytic Liquefaction Processes:

The final category of direct liquefaction process employs the concept of catalytic liquefaction in which a
suitable catalyst is used to add hydrogen to the coal. These processes usually require a liquid medium
with the catalyst dispersed throughout or may even employ a fixed-bed reactor. On the other hand, the
catalyst may also be dispersed within the coal where upon the combined coal-catalyst system can be
injected into the reactor.

Many processes of this type have the advantage of eliminating the need for a hydrogen donor solvent
(and the subsequent hydrogenation of the spent solvent) but there is still the need for an adequate supply
of hydrogen. Furthermore, in order to achieve the direct hydrogenation of the coal, the catalyst and the
coal must be in intimate contact, but if this is not the case, process inefficiency is the general rule.

1.5.2 Indirect Liquefaction Processes:

The other category of coal liquefaction processes invokes the concept of the indirect liquefaction of coal.
In these processes, the coal is not converted directly into liquid products but involves a two-stage
conversion operation in which coal is first converted (by reaction with steam and oxygen) to produce a
gaseous mixture that is composed primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (syngas; synthesis gas).
The gas stream is subsequently purified (to remove sulfur, nitrogen, and any particulate matter) after
which it is catalytically converted to a mixture of liquid hydrocarbon products.

The synthesis of hydrocarbons from carbon monoxide and hydrogen (synthesis gas) (the Fischer-Tropsch
synthesis) is a procedure for the indirect liquefaction of coal. This process is the only coal liquefaction
scheme currently in use on a relatively large commercial scale; South Africa is currently using the Fischer-
Tropsch process on a commercial scale in their SASOL complex.

Thus, coal is converted to gaseous products at temperatures in excess of 800C (1472F), and at moderate
pressures, to produce synthesis gas:

C + H2O CO + H2

The gasification may be attained by means of any one of several processes or even by gasification of coal
in place (underground, or in situ, gasification of coal). In practice, the Fischer-Tropsch reaction is carried
out at temperatures of 200 to 350C (392662F) and at pressures of 75 to 4000 psi (0.527.5 MPa). The
H2/CO ratio is usually 2.2:1 or 2.5:1. Since up to three volumes of hydrogen may be required to achieve
the next stage of the liquids production, the synthesis gas must then be converted by means of the water-
gas shift reaction to the desired level of hydrogen:

CO + H2O CO2 + H2

After this, the gaseous mix is purified and converted to a wide variety of hydrocarbons:

nCO + (2n + 1)H2 CnH2n+2 + nH2O

These reactions result primarily in low- and medium-boiling aliphatic compounds suitable for gasoline and
diesel fuel.

1.6TYPES OF COAL:
There are several different types of coal, each displaying different properties resulting from their age
and the depth to which they have been buried under other rocks. In some parts of the world (e.g. New
Zealand), coal development is accelerated by volcanic heat or crustal stresses.

The degree of coal development is referred to as a coals rank with peat being the lowest

rank coal and anthracite the highest. The various types are as follows:

Peat: Peat is the layer of vegetable material directly underlying the growing zone of a coal
forming environment. The vegetable material shows very little alteration and contains the roots of living
plants. Peat is widely used as a domestic fuel in rural parts of the world.

Lignite: Lignite is geologically very young (upward of around 40,000 years). It is brown and can
be soft and fibrous, containing discernible plant material. It also contains large amounts of moisture
(typically around 70%) and hence, it has low energy content (around 8-10 MJ/kg). As the coal develops it
loses its fibrous character and darkens in color.
 Black coal: Black coal ranges from Cretaceous age (65 to 105 million years ago) to mid- Permian
age (up to 260 million years ago). They are all black; some are sooty and still quite high in moisture (sub-
bituminous coal). A common name for this coal in many parts of the world is black lignite. Coals that
get more deeply buried by other rocks lose more moisture and start to lose their oxygen and hydrogen;
they are harder and shinier (e.g. bituminous coal). Typical energy contents are around 24-28 MJ/kg.
These coals generally have less than 3% moisture, but some power stations bum coal at up to 30% ash.

Anthracite: Anthracite is a hard, black, shiny form of coal that contains virtually no moisture and very
low volatile content. Because of this, it bums with little or no smoke and is sold as a smokeless fuel. In
general, coals only approach anthracite composition where bituminous coal seams have been
compressed further by local crustal movements. Anthracites can have energy contents up to about 32
MJ/kg, depending on the ash content.

It is important to note that coal rank has little to do with quality. As a coal matures its ash content
actually increases as a proportion because of the loss of moisture and volatiles. Lower rank coals may
have lower energy contents, but they tend to be more reactive (i.e. they bum faster) because of their
porosity and resultant higher surface area.

1.7CHARACTERISTICS OF COAL:
The characteristics of coal that determine classification and suitability for given applications are the
proportions of volatile matter, fixed carbon, moisture, sulfur and ash. Each of these is reported in the
proximate analysis. Coal analysis can be reported on several bases: as received, moisture-free (or dry)
and mineral-matter-free (or ash-free). As-received is applicable for combustion calculations; moisture-
free and mineral-matter-free, for classification purposes.

Volatile matter is driven off as gas or vapor when the coal is heated according to a standard
temperature test. It consists of a variety of organic gases, generally resulting from distillation and
decomposition. Volatile products given off by coals when heated differ materially in the ratios (by mass)
of the gases to oils and tars. No heavy oils or tars are given off by anthracite and very small quantities
are given off by semi anthracite. As volatile matter in the coal increases to as much as 40% of the coal
(dry and ash-free basis), increasing amounts of oils and tars are released. However, for coals of higher
volatile content, the quantity of oils and tars decreases and is relatively low in the sub-bituminous coals
and in lignite.

Fixed carbon is the combustible residue left after the volatile matter is driven off. It is not all carbon. Its
form and hardness are an indication of fuel coking properties and therefore, fixed carbon represents
that portion of fuel that must be burned in the solid state. Moisture is difficult to determine accurately
because a sample can lose moisture on exposure to the atmosphere, particularly when reducing the
sample size for analysis. To correct for this loss, total moisture content of a sample is customarily
determined by adding the moisture loss obtained when air-drying the sample to the measured moisture
content of the dried sample. Moisture does not represent all of the water present in coal; water of
decomposition (combined water) and of hydration are not given off under standardized test conditions.

Ash is the noncombustible residue remaining after complete coal combustion. Generally, the mass of
ash is slightly less than that of mineral matter before burning. Sulfur is an undesirable constituent in
coal, because the sulfur oxides formed when it bums contribute to air pollution and cause combustion
system corrosion. Heating value may be reported on an as-received, dry, dry and mineral-matter-free or
moist and mineral-matter-free basis. Higher heating values of coals are frequently reported with their
proximate analysis.

1.8ADVANTAGES OF GASIFICATION OVER COMBUSTION

From an environmental standpoint, gasification offers several advantages over the combustion of solids,
heavy oils and carbonaceous industrial and domestic wastes. First, emission of Sulphur and nitrogen
oxides precursors to acid rain as well as particulates from gasification is reduced significantly due to the
cleanup of syngas. Sulphur in the gasifier feed is converted to H2S and nitrogen in the feed is converted
to N2 and NH3. Both H2S and NH3 are removed in the downstream processes producing a cleanup
syngas. Therefore, if the resulting clean syngas is combusted in a gas turbine to generate electricity or in
a boiler to produce steam or hot water, the production of Sulphur and nitrogen oxides are reduced
significantly. If the clean syngas is used as an intermediate product for manufacture of chemicals, these
acid rain precursors are not formed.

The particulates in the raw syngas are also significantly reduced due to multiple gas cleanup systems
used to meet gas turbine manufactures specifications. Particulate removal takes place in primary
cyclones, scrubbers or dry filters and then in gas cooling and acid gas removal system. One study by the
U.S Department of Energy shows that repowering of conventional coal- fued utility systems with IGCC
systems can reduce sulphur and nitrogen oxides as well as particulate emissions by one to two orders of
magnitude.

A second major advantage is that furan and dioxin compounds are not formed during gasification.
Combustion of organic matter is a major source of these highly toxic and carcinogenic pollutants. The
reasons why furans and dioxins are not formed in gasification are:

o The lack of oxygen in the reducing environment of the gasifier prevents formation of
free chlorine from HCL and limits chlorination of any precursor compounds in the
gasifier.
o High temperature of gasification processes effectively destroys any furan or dioxin
precursors in the feed.

1.9USES OF COAL:
Coal has many important uses worldwide. The most significant uses are in electricity generation, steel
production, cement manufacturing and as a liquid fuel. Around 5.8 billion tons of hard coal were used
worldwide last year and 953 million tons of brown coal. Since 2000, global coal consumption has grown
faster than any other fuel. The five largest coal users arc China, USA, India, Japan and Russia. These
countries account for 72% of total global coal use.

The biggest market for coal is Asia, which currently accounts for 56% of global coal consumption,
although China is responsible for a significant proportion of this. Many countries do not have natural
energy resources sufficient to cover their energy needs and therefore need to import energy to help
meet their requirements. Japan, Chinese Taipei and Korea, for example, import significant quantities of
steam coal for electricity generation and coking coal for steel production.

Various uses of coal are:

Coal as fuel for heating purposes

Ethanol production
Gasification & liquefaction
Electricity generation
Steel production
Cement manufacturing
Alumina refineries
Carbon fiber
Activated carbon
Silicon metal production