Alter NRG Plasma Gasifier will convert a wide variety of waste streams into a clean syngas which can be further altered to create other forms of energy.
A plasma gasifier is an oxygen starved vessel where various feedstocks can be gasified using the very high temperatures achievable with plasma. Rather than being combusted, the heat breaks the feedstock down into elements like hydrogen and simple compounds like carbon monoxide and water. The gas that is created is called synthesis gas or “syngas”.
The syngas created in the gasifier, which contains dust (particulates) and other undesirable elements like mercury, undergoes a clean-up process to make it suitable for conversion into other forms of energy including power, heat and liquid fuels. The syngas clean-up process is tailored to meet the requirements of each project. In most cases, especially where municipal solid waste (MSW) is the feedstock, the syngas clean-up will include particulate removal, sulphur removal and mercury/heavy metals removal.
Plasma gasification differs from non-plasma gasification in one key area – temperature. Non plasma gasifiers typically operate between 800 and 900 °C. The temperatures inside Alter NRG’s gasifier reach over 3000 °C that utilizes Plasma Torches. The syngas exits the gasifier at 950 °C. The slag flows out of the gasifier at 1650 °C. The higher temperatures inside our plasma gasifier result in the complete destruction of tars, something that is not achievable with non-plasma technologies. It is very difficult to remove tars downstream of the gasifier and therefore the utility of the syngas produced by non-plasma gasifiers is very limited. It can be burned immediately but, to the best of our knowledge, non-plasma waste derived syngas has not been conditioned for use at large scale for use in gas turbines, reciprocating engines or for conversion into liquid fuels.
In summary, Alter NRG gasifier enables the conversion of difficult feedstocks like MSW into a clean syngas that is suitable for use in advanced conversion technologies such as high efficiency gas turbines or next generation liquid fuels technologies. In the near future, we expect to power fuel cells with syngas from our gasifier.
Waste to Electricity
Alter NRG_Plasma Gasification Solution - Waste to Electricity
Alter NRG Corp. gasification technology is used at several facilities around the world to produce electricity from a number of waste streams.
Hitachi produces electricity from the gasification of MSW and auto shredder residue (also known as auto-fluff). SMSIL produces electricity from the gasification of about 40 different hazardous waste feedstocks.
Air Products and Chemicals (“Air Products”), a Fortune 500 industrial gas company, has purchased a plasma gasifier from Alter NRG Corp. for use in the 1000 tonne per day (300,000 tonnes per annum) plant Air Products is constructing in Northeast England. When completed, the plant will have a capacity of about 50 MW of power.
The table below shows the various waste streams that can be used as feedstock and the various power island configurations suitable for generating power.
Alter NRG Corp gasification facility is ideally suited for combined heat and power applications.
Air Products and Chemicals has a commercial agreement in place with Waste2Tricity, a UK based company with an exclusive relationship with AFC Fuel Cells, to demonstrate fuel cell technology at the Tees Valley site in Northeast England. The date for the demonstration has not yet been finalized.
Waste to Liquids
Syngas, created through the gasification of waste, contains the building blocks for the production of liquid fuels such as diesel, jet fuel, ethanol, methanol and propanol.
Coskata, the owner of technology that converts syngas to ethanol completed a successful multi-year demonstration program at the Plasma demonstration center, where syngas was created from biomass and municipal solid waste. Coskata converted that syngas to ethanol.
Other Applications
The Alter NRG Plasma Gasification Solution can be used in a number of other applications including:
- Destruction of hazardous waste – without the production of energy
- Destruction of incinerator ash – rendering it inert and safe for the environment
Hazardous Waste Destruction
Alter NRG Plasma Gasification Solution provides a sustainable and effective destruction of the hazardous materials.
Alter NRG Plasma Gasification is a commercially proven, operationally robust and cost competitive solution for the treatment of hazardous waste. Over the last decade, we have deployed our plasma gasification technology in two hazardous waste-to-energy facilities and amassed over eight years of operational experience. Most recently, we have leveraged this experience to design a turnkey hazardous waste solution that is positioned to set a new standard for hazardous waste treatment globally.
Advantages of Alter NRG Plasma Gasification Solution for hazardous waste destruction:
- No dioxins or furans are generated due to high temperature created by Plasma Torches
- Produces high quality syngas that can be used in gas turbines or liquid conversions
- Modular design controls site specific construction and installation costs
- Allows the facility to be configured in a custom manner for co-location opportunities
- Turnkey plant solution includes design, fabrication, installation and commissioning
Refueling Boilers
Refueling existing boilers and lime kilns with waste
Many of the projects under development by Alter NRG’s customers are “Refueling” opportunities – situations where our customers own existing facilities that are fueled by expensive fossil fuels such as:
- Fuel oil
- Liquefied petroleum gas
- Liquefied natural gas
- Natural gas
- Coke gas
- Coal
Alter NRG - Waste-to-EnergyOur customers plan to reduce or eliminate their consumption of fossil fuels by gasifying waste feedstocks such as municipal solid waste, tires and automobile shredder residue (also known as auto-fluff) to produce syngas which is then burned in place of the fossil fuels.
There are numerous benefits associated with a refueling opportunity:
- Net fuel costs can be reduced by as much or more than 50% depending on the specific opportunity.
- Local, sometimes costly, waste disposal issues can be eliminated at the same time. This is particularly true for opportunities located on islands.
- Reduced greenhouse gas impact when renewable fuels such as municipal solid waste are used to displace fossil fuels.
In most cases, only minor modifications are necessary to the existing boilers and kilns so they can burn syngas produced from the waste streams.
Incinerator Integration
Alter NRG’s Plasma Technology is able to treat the incinerator ash and turning the majority of it into a benign glass-like slag that can be used in other industries such as construction. The Plasma gasifier can increase the incinerator facility revenues by taking other high tipping fee feedstock and creating additional syngas or steam which can make the facilities power self-sufficient or increase their output to the power grid.
Benefits:
- Vitrifies hazardous fly ash and bottom ash
- Increases the temperature and efficiency of the existing incinerator
- Processes additional high value feedstock to improve economics
- Increases electricity production
IMPACT for ALTER NRG: We have opened up immediate market opportunities around the world. With the increasing regulations and scrutiny on incineration emissions, we believe that this is a significant advantage to be complementary to the existing 3,000 or more incinerators worldwide.
IMPACT for the World: There is a solution for aging incinerators that both improves their economics and reduces their environmental footprint.
Impact for You, our Next Customer: This is an economic turnkey solution that can convert hazardous waste, incinerator ash, medical waste or industrial waste into useable energy.
Typical Plasma Facility
1. Integrated Plasma Gasification Combined Cycle
Summary of major process blocks
Alter NRG Corp.’s gasifier is a critical component of an integrated plasma gasification combined cycle facility (“IPGCC”). The Air Products Tees Valley Renewable Energy facility is configured as an IPGCC. Plasma gasification can be used to produce syngas which can be conditioned and then converted to liquid fuels or power through technology platforms like fuel cells or reciprocating engines. For all of those applications, the majority of the plant, is dedicated to processing waste and making clean syngas, will be quite similar.
2. Plant Process Summary
MSW is delivered to the plant receiving facility which will have several days of storage capacity. The other two materials, coke and flux, which are fed into the gasifier concurrently with the MSW are also delivered to the facility. The flux material is typically crushed limestone and its purpose is to promote proper slag flow within the gasifier. The coke forms a bed within the reactor.
The three materials are metered onto a common charge conveyor which transports the feedstock to the gasifier. Depending on the size of the MSW, it may have to be shredded on site to a size less than approximately 15 cm before being transferred to the conveyor.
Within the gasifier, the organic portion of the MSW is converted into syngas. The syngas is partially quenched with atomized water at the top of the gasifier prior to exiting the gasifier at a temperature of approximately 850 °C through two nozzles.
The metallic and ash content of the MSW forms molten slag, which flows through the tapholes at the bottom of the gasifier. The slag is then quenched and granulated upon exiting the gasifier. The resulting vitreous granules are conveyed and loaded onto trucks for export to customers.
The gasifier is equipped with Plasma torch systems to ensure the internal temperatures in the reactor are sufficient to guarantee complete conversion of carbonaceous material to syngas and to melt all the inorganic material.
Syngas is cooled through a caustic venturi quench scrubber and scrubber system and then proceeds to a wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP). The primary purpose of the venturi quench and WESP is to remove the particulate matter entrained within the syngas as well as to convert chlorine within the syngas into salt. The cooled and particulate free syngas proceeds through a series of syngas cleaning processes to remove chlorine, sulphur, lead, cadmium, zinc and mercury. Intermediate compression and cooling steps remove moisture from the gas.
The clean syngas is then compressed in a multi-stage compressor and fed into a gas turbine to produce electrical power. The turbine flue gas heat is recovered by a heat recovery steam generator (“HRSG”). The steam from the HRSG is combined and fed to a multi-stage steam turbine to generate power.
Alternately, the cleaned syngas can be used in reciprocating engines to make power or it can be converted to liquid fuels using a number of available conversion technologies.
3. Example of IPGCC Plant Inputs and Outputs
An IPGCC plant that processes 1000 tpd of MSW (12 MJ/kg) will produce about 50 MW of power. It will also produce about 250 tpd of slag that can be sold as aggregate. A further 20 tpd of coarse particulate is produced which can be recycled back into the gasifier. The remaining 20 tpd of fine particulate, which includes elements like cadmium and mercury must be properly disposed of. In other words, an IPGCC plant that process 1000 tpd of MSW will produce only 20 tpd of residuals that require long term disposal. The other 980 tpd is converted into electricity and beneficial products.
Plant Economics
Example Plant Economics
The economics of a plasma gasification plant are a function of numerous factors. Alter NRG has created a proprietary economic modeling platform (“Scoping Model”) that we use to assist customers in the early stages of project development.
The Scoping Model allows customers to quickly assess the impact of changing numerous assumptions such as:
- Plant capacity
- Type of feedstock (MSW, RDF, tires, electrical waste, auto shredder residue, etc)
- Gate fees (tipping fees)
- Combinations of feedstocks and gate fees
- Power prices and/or liquid fuel prices
- Plant configuration (combined cycle, reciprocating engines, FT liquids, etc)
- Labour rates for plant staff
- Renewable energy incentives
- Interest rates
- Debt and equity levels
- Installation factors specific to a geography
- Contingency factor
The outputs from the Scoping Model include:
- Estimated capital cost
- Estimated operating expenses
- Internal rate of return
- Return on equity
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