SES GASIFICATION TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION & SERVICES

The SES Gasification Technology (SGT) process is differentiated from other commercially proven gasification technologies due to its ability to cleanly and economically convert nearly all solid carbonaceous fuels into synthesis gas, or “syngas”—the building block of a multitude of energy and chemical products.

SGT

SGT is a single-stage, bubbling fluidized-bed gasification system for the production of low-to-medium heating value syngas from a wide array of feedstocks including coals, coal wastes, biomass and municipal solid waste (MSW) using oxygen, oxygen-enriched air, or air in the gasification reaction. It was developed over 35 years of research, testing, piloting and demonstration, and SES has taken the technology to a new commercialized level during the last decade.


The Real Cost of Energy

People most in need of clean and affordable energy and chemicals are often the ones with the most limited means. Affordable, sustainable and realizable solutions paired with education are needed to preserve our planet while generating energy needed to improve the quality of life for people in these regions.

It’s an economic reality. Outdated and high-polluting technologies using locally sourced coal have been used to bootstrap electricity generation in many parts of the world. It’s been a necessity for many industrializing countries to sacrifice both energy independence and environmental responsibility because options for clean technologies were not affordable or flexible enough.

Traditionally coals and other resources have been burned to make energy. SGT does not burn these resources. Instead SES’s proprietary technology chemically reacts the feedstocks in a high temperature and pressure closed environment, and the syngas generated can be processed into a variety of clean energy products.

Therefore, growth based on SGT can be achieved without hazy skies and polluted water.

SES Gasification Technology (SGT) is: Affordable. Proven. Sustainable. Clean.

World Coal Reserves (Billion Tonnes)

Total: 891.5 Billion Tonnes
Bituminous & Anthracite: 403.2
Sub-bituminous & Lignite: 488.3
More than 50% of recoverable global coal reserves are untapped sub-bituminous and close-to-surface lignite (brown) coal
  Renewable biomass and municipal solid waste are alternative SGT feedstocks

SGT transforms virtually all global coal reserves into synthesis gas, or syngas, which is used to produce clean, gas-based energy and chemical products we use every day. SGT’s fuel flexibility includes the ability to convert the world’s growing piles of coal mining wastes and the lowest quality sub-bituminous and lignite (brown) coals, which comprise more than 50% of the global coal resources. That is worth repeating: greater than 50% of the world’s available coal, most of which is currently untapped, can be cleanly converted to high demand and high value energy and chemical products with SGT.

Renewable biomass and municipal solid waste are alternative feedstocks for SGT. Agricultural wastes and other wastes that are disposal concerns for communities can be cleanly and affordably converted into much needed energy on small and large scales.

Imagine: SES Gasification Technology can convert all solid feedstocks into clean energy. The result? A country’s local and abundant natural resources can be converted into clean energy for its citizens.

SES Gasification Technology

HOW IT WORKS

SES Gasification Technology (SGT) offers a flexible and economical way to convert the world’s most abundant and least expensive energy resources into products to improve our society and way of life, bringing industrialization to regions which are still in desperate need of electricity, clean water and plentiful food sources.

Feedstock such as coal, biomass and municipal solid waste (MSW) is prepared in such a way to allow it to flow easily. Preparation may include grinding, sorting, shredding, and/or some drying if necessary to get the feedstock to the required specifications for the gasifier feed system. The prepared feedstock is then pneumatically conveyed into the SGT gasifier vessel, a bubbling fluidized bed reactor. Within the fluidized bed, the feedstock reacts with steam and oxygen, and the temperature is moderated to maintain high carbon conversion and non-slagging conditions for the ash present in the feedstock. The SGT gasification process accomplishes four important functions: it decakes, devolatilizes and gasifies the feedstock, and if necessary, agglomerates and separates ash from the reacting coal, biomass or MSW material.

During operation, the feedstock and reactant gases, including steam and oxygen, are introduced into the gasifier and are used to fluidize the bed inside the gasifier. Ash is removed by gravity from the gasifier and is discharged into a system for depressurization and disposal. The gasifier maintains a low level of carbon in the bottom ash discharge stream and achieves overall carbon conversions that can exceed 99%. Cold gas efficiencies of over 80% and carbon conversion of up to 99% have been repeatedly demonstrated on a commercial scale in SGT operating plants. SGT is more fuel-flexible, utilizing low-rank and other high-ash coals, and offers higher efficiency than competing gasification technologies, due to the fluidized bed design and resulting long residence times of the reacting particles.

Fines carried over from the fluidized bed are separated from the syngas prior to heat recovery and syngas cleanup. The product syngas is essentially free of tars and oils due to the temperature and residence time of the gases in the fluidized bed, simplifying downstream heat recovery and gas cleaning operations.

The syngas is then further processed for use in many applications such as electricity, substitute natural gas (SNG), methanol, di-methyl ether, glycol, ammonia, reducing gas for direct reduced iron (DRI) for steel production, industrial gases, and transportation fuels such as gasoline and diesel. Other byproducts such as sulfur, carbon dioxide, steam and coarse ash are viable commercial products. SGT allows for carbon capture during syngas processing in the syngas cleanup systems downstream of the gasification processes.


FEEDSTOCK TESTS

SES is uniquely positioned to perform all arrays of gasification testing for its customers to provide an optimum plant design and customer assurance on SGT performance:

1

Feedstock analysis and suitability evaluation

2

Bench scale
gasification

3

Pilot scale
gasification

SES’s gasification technology has demonstrated reliable performance, high carbon conversions and high efficiencies on a wide range of feedstocks. SES’s bench scale, pilot scale, demonstration scale and commercial scale tested feedstocks include:

LOW RANK COALS

Montana Rosebud, Colstrip

Wyoming, Big Horn

North Dakota Lignite, Freedom

Saskatchewan Lignite

Inner Mongolia Lignite

Australian Lignite)

Coke Char, Peat & Wastes

Metallurgical Coke – U.S., China, Poland

Western Kentucky No. 9 Coal Char

Illinois No. 6 Coal Char

Finnish Peat – Viidansuo and Savaloneva

Automobile Shredder Residue

Oil Shale

Bituminous Coals

Western Kentucky No. 9, Washed & Run-of-Mine (ROM)

Western Kentucky No. 9 & 11, Camp

Illinois No. 6, Peabody No. 10 & Crown III

Pittsburgh No. 8, Champion & Ireland

Australian, Bayswater No. 2, Sydney Basin

Polish, Silesia

French, Merlebach, ROM

Utah, ROM

Colombian

Chinese Shen Fu

Chinese Yima

Indian, North Karanpura, Washed & ROM

BIOMASS

Finnish Waste Wood & Pulp Mill Waste

Danish Willow

Danish Straw

Pelletized Alfalfa Stems

Pelletized Waste Wood

Bagasse

Rice Straw

Chicken Litter

Refuse Derived Fuel

Auto Shredder Residue


TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

1

FEEDSTOCK TESTING

SES is uniquely positioned to perform all arrays of gasification testing for its customers to provide an optimum plant design and customer assurance on SGT performance: 1) feedstock analysis and suitability evaluation, 2) bench scale gasification, and 3) pilot scale gasification.

2

TECHNOLOGY LICENSING

SES licenses its proprietary gasification technology to third parties who wish to build, own, and operate plants using SGT to convert coal, coal wastes, MSW and biomass materials into energy and chemical products.

3

ENGINEERING SERVICES

SES provides full plant engineering and cost estimating services with detail to match its customers’ project development stage. This includes early feasibility studies as well as more detailed packages to support front end engineering and design (FEED) and detailed engineering for projects.

4

Equipment Supply

In addition to its technology licensor packages, SES supplies its key proprietary equipment into projects. SES may also supply a larger scope of equipment into projects to meet SES’s customers’ needs.

5

Technical Services

SES provides technical services support for the entire project development cycle including during early development, engineering, construction, startup and commissioning, and mature operations. This support level is critical to ensuring that projects based on SGT are built and run optimally. SES also can provide valuable operator training for customers and licensees to ensure smooth operations for projects based on SES Gasification Technology (SGT).


SES Gasification 101

Gasification is a building block technology for the manufacturing of chemicals, electricity, fuels, and other valuable energy products that have conventionally been produced from natural gas or crude oil.

Air Separation Unit
(ASU)

The Air Separation Unit, or ASU, brings in air from the outside and uses a specialized process to separate the oxygen from the air. This purified oxygen stream is fed to the gasifier to drive the reactions.

Gasification

In the Gasification Section, coal is combined with oxygen in the gasifier to generate syngas. The non-reactive parts of the coal feed are removed from the bottom of the gasifier as an ash by-product. This can be sold for use in road paving or making cement.

High Temperature Heat Recovery

In the High Temperature Heat Recovery section, the hot syngas is cooled while generating high pressure steam to improve the overall efficiency of the plant. This steam can be used to generate electricity or to provide thermal energy.

Fines Recycle

In the Fines Recycle section, any remaining solid particles that are still in the syngas are removed. The fines are collected and returned to the gasifier to minimize solid waste and to improve overall efficiency.

Sulfur and CO2 Removal

In the Sulfur and CO2 removal section, the syngas is processed to remove any sulfur and CO2. Since the sulfur and CO2 are removed prior to combustion and while the syngas is still at elevated pressure, very deep removal is easily achieved. The technologies that are used to capture the CO2 and sulfur are fully mature, commercially proven technologies that have been used for decades in the gasification and refining industries.

1
Air Separation Unit
(ASU)
2
Gasification
3
High Temperature
Heat Recovery
4
Fines Recycle
5
Sulfur and CO2
Removal

Gasification is a combination of molecular chemical reactions that convert complex hydrocarbons and lower value energy sources such as coals, municipal solid wastes (MSW) and biomass materials into synthesis gas, or “syngas,” which is generally defined as hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO) molecules. These syngas molecules are the building blocks for numerous and varied products, such as electricity, fuels and other high value energy products, and chemicals and precursors that have conventionally been produced from natural gas or crude oil. Gasification is an economic and efficient way to manufacture these products from locally abundant and affordable natural resources or MSW.

A gasifier is the vessel in which the reactions occur to chemically convert hydrocarbon resources into syngas. Generally gasification takes place under pressure, ranging from atmospheric conditions to as high as 55 bar(g). Gasification requires a limited amount of oxygen, less than combustion, as the resulting chain reactions are more thermally efficient with a balance of exothermic and endothermic constituent reactions. Generally the reaction temperatures required for gasification range from 900-3000°F (480-1650°C). Steam or water and an oxidant plus the hydrocarbon source are required for the gasification reactions to occur and be sustained.

Products and by-products of gasification include syngas – gaseous form of hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O), methane (CH4), hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and COS (if sulfur is present in the original feedstock), nitrogen (N2) and other compounds in reduced quantity – ash, heat, and water.

The gasification process is fundamentally clean and environmentally friendly, as it deals with reactants and product species in their lowest molecular form. Complex organic feeds are reduced to simple molecules, with metals and other non-organic trace impurities vitrified in the ash by-product which may be safely disposed of or resold. Downstream processing of the syngas is often simple and cost-effective as waste products have already been removed.

The syngas produced from gasification is the replacement for natural gas and crude oil for the formation of a plethora of energy and chemical products. When low-cost feedstocks are available and used for conversion, these products are economically competitive with products derived from natural gas and oil and often have a lower environmental footprint.