Research and development to prepare and characterize robust coal/biomass mixtures for direct co-feeding into gasification systems

This project was initiated on October 1, 2010 and utilizes equipment and research supported by the Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory, under Award Number DE- FE0005349. It is also based upon previous work supported by the Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory, under Award Numbers DOE-DE-FG36-01GOl1082, DE-FG36-02G012011 or DE-EE0000272. The overall goal of the work performed was to demonstrate and assess the economic viability of fast hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) for transforming lignocellulosic biomass into a densified, friable fuel to gasify like coal that can be easily blended with ground coal and coal fines and then be formed into robust, weather-resistant pellets and briquettes. The specific objectives of the project include: • Demonstration of the continuous production of a uniform densified and formed feedstock from loblolly pine (a lignocellulosic, short rotation woody crop) in a hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) process development unit (PDU). • Demonstration that finely divided bituminous coal and HTC loblolly pine can be blended to form 90/10 and 70/30 weight-percent mixtures of coal and HTC biomass for further processing by pelletization and briquetting equipment to form robust weather resistant pellets and/or briquettes suitable for transportation and long term storage. • Characterization of the coal-biomass pellets and briquettes to quantify their more » physical properties (e.g. flow properties, homogeneity, moisture content, particle size and shape), bulk physical properties (e.g. compressibility, heat transfer and friability) and assess their suitability for use as fuels for commercially-available coal gasifiers. • Perform economic analyses using Aspen-based process simulations to determine the costs for deploying and operating HTC processing facilities for the production of robust coal/biomass fuels suitable for fueling commercially-available coal-fired gasifiers. This Final Project Scientific/Technical Report discusses and documents the project work required to meet each of these objectives. « less