| Coal gasification converts solid coal into a gas that can be used for power generation, chemical production, as well as converted into liquid fuels.
Gasification exposes coal to temperatures that would normally cause the coal to combust but by carefully regulating the amount of oxygen in the gasifier and adding steam, the coal does not burn but rather separates into syngas. Syngas is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The syngas can then be ‘shifted’ with the addition of more steam to produce more hydrogen and to convert the carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide (CO2). The gasification of coal and other substances (petcoke, refinery bottom waste, biomass etc.) is not new. For example, China has been successfully gasifying coal for decades for ‘town gas’, chemical feedstock and for its domestic fertiliser industry. |
