lawrence livermore

Boz, (and all CXY'ites),

You asked about Lawrence Livermore. I recall posting this a while ago. Apologies for the difficult layout but it was a presentation given to a conference around fifteen months ago.

R Recent Advances in UCG Technology Development
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Conclusions

UCG is an advanced technology to produce syngas with distinct cost and environmental advantages
LLNL has been and continues to be a leader in UCG technology development and deployment
Opportunities are growing to test and develop advanced UCG to tackle tough economic, environmental, and carbon management problems

Underground coal gasification (UCG) could change the game for energy and environmental security
• Secure domestic supply
– 3–4 times increase in coal reserves
– Low-cost synthetic natural gas
• Economics and energy supply
– Appears substantially cheaper (>30%) that conventional PC power
– Lower CAPEX and OPEX
• Greenhouse gas emission reduction
– 30–50% reduction in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) deployment costs
– Cheap hydrogen production enables H2 industry
• Environmental quality gains
– No mining required (acid drainage, mountain top removal)
– Criteria pollutant emission management (SOx, NOx, Hg, ash)
– Much less water consumption

The community knows a lot about UCG and we are learning more
Important UCG technology development groups
• ErgoExergy, Inc: e-UCG technology
• ENN (XinAo group): New pilot, experimental
facility
• Clean Carbon Energy: Simulators
• IIT-Bombay: Simulators
• Univ. Queensland: Theoretical development
• Texyn: Novel subsurface UCG approach
Important new projects in development
• Majuba, Laurus, Cougar, GasTech, GAIL, Solid Energy,
• Synergia Polygen
• RIL, ONCG

Major prior accomplishments
• Invented, developed, and proved the CRIP (controlled retractable injection point) process (1974-1985)
• Conducted a number of field tests (Hoe Creek, Hanna Basin, Centralia, Rocky
Mountain 1) = ½ US pilots
• Developed and validated cavity growth models (Thorseness and Britten, 1989)
• Developed new experimental approaches
• Produced highest energy syngas (290 BTU/scf) at RM1
• Compared oxygen vs. air blown, different completion strategies (e.g., reverse
combustion vs. fire linking)

LLNL continues to show leadership in UCG technology development
Major current accomplishments
• Developed a CFD-based model of the UCG process and integrated it with Aspen Plus (Wallman 2004)
• Expanded the CFD model to include process coupling, additional phenomenology
• Developed a set of tools for environmental assessment
• Developed methodologies for process control monitoring
• Study of new mechanisms (e.g., enhanced vapor diffusion
• Applied carbon management and CO2 sequestration expertise to UCG (Blinderman & Friedmann, 2006)
• Draft “Best Practices” report (2006); updated this year

Simple” UCG Economics can be considered in a Powder River Basin reference case
• Well spacing 200 feet
• Air-blown; dry gas heating value 150 Btu/scf
• Resource recovered is 65% of coal-inplace (very conservative)
• Gasification thermal efficiency of 81%
• Depth to seam 320m; thickness 35m
• Facility sized to fuel 200 MWe CC power plant with 45% conversion
efficiency, 95% capacity factor
• Each 1 sq. mile can support this plant for 68 years!!

PRB reference case shows outstanding economics

Megawatts IGCC550 UCG 200
Capacity Factor IGCC 85 UCG 95
Total Capital ($M) IGCC $850 UCG $263
Capital, $/KW IGCC $1544 UCG $1180
OPEX, $M/y IGCC $90.1 UCG $20
OPEX, $/MW-hr IGCC $22.0 UCG $12.0
Construction IGCC 3 yrs UCG 3 years
Operation IGCC 22 yrs UCG 22 years
Debt/Equity IGCC 100% UCG 100%
USFIT rate IGCC 35% UCG 35%
Sale price for 15% ROI IGCC $80.6 UCG $51.7
ROR at $62/MW-hr IGCC10.4% UCG 18.3%
Payback at $62/MW-hr IGCC10.8 UCG 7.7

All UCG cases show lower Capex, Opex, making carbon management cheaper
Syngas production
• Total Capital $57.2 M
• Annual OPEX $13.5 M
• Raw syngas $1.62/MMBtu
• Includes15% ROI
UCG-CC power plant
• ~75% surface IGCC capex
• ~55% surface IGCC opex
• Better ROI
• UCG-CC + CCS ≈ IGCC
UCG-FT plant
• 10,000 BPD +100 MW
• $622 M Capex
• $53 M Opex
• Diesel @ $63/bbl, naptha
@$30/bbl, $62/MW-hr
• 18% ROI

• Preliminary findings indicate that:
– UCG-CC costs less than pulverized coal (PC)
– UCG-CC + partial CCS is less than PC without CCS
– UCG-CC + full CCS is less than above-ground IGCC without CCS
– UCG + CCS can provide lowest H2 production costs
– UCG-CC uses less water than any surface equivalent coal application
– Costs are changing rapidly
SCPC,
CS
Net Output (MWe) UCG 200 IGCC 630
Capacity factor UCG 100 IGCC 85
Raw Water Usage (gpm/MWe) UCG 2.9 IGCC 6.0
Plant Efficiency (HHV) (%) UCG 63 IGCC 40

LLNL has developed an initial sweet-spot analytical
methodology
• Combine key elements through GIS and EarthVision
– Resource distribution (coal depth, thickness, coal resource density, sequestration resource)
– Available infrastructure (major transmission, pipelines, roads)
– Hazards ( seismic faults, mines, wells, population centers
– Market potential (current and projected market size, product value, EOR potential)
• Initial phase: limited scope
– Development of methodology
– Initial application in geographically limited area
• Potential future phase
– Methodology refinement
– Addition of risk-based decision making
– Application to wider geographical areas

LLNL looks beyond resource to current and projected
market demands
• Four different markets
– Electric power, Liquid fuels, Synthetic NG and Hydrogen
• Four GIS inputs
– Geology/resource, Hazards, Infrastructure and Market
• Final analysis
– Location of best opportunities, Ranking of sites by market opportunity and Understanding of future opportunities and contingencies


A number of projects have begun with pending technology
releases
• Technology development agreement w/ BP, including study of reactor zone carbon
sequestration
• Dramatic improvements in simulation capability (see next)
• Working with groups to develop site characterization practices and development standards
• Development and preliminary simulation of UCG monitoring technologies (see next)
• Negotiations with several international companies around field projects (including
companies in India)

LLNL has developed the best UCG simulators in the world
• Current: 3D CFD-based simulator
– Radial symmetry, 7 key reactions (including WGS)
– Non-steady state; laminar to turbulent transition
– 1-m and 10-m channels demonstrated
– Coupled today with reactive transport simulators – heat, water, carbon flux
– 100 m channel achieved: Atlas (44 Tflop) using +200 CPUs
– Coupled w/ ASPEN
• Next steps
– Coupled with geomechanics
– Cavity collapse
– Multiple runs for multiple coal ranks
– Validate in field (2008-2009

LLNL has begun to simulate and test
monitoring tools to improve process control
• Direct monitoring
– Geochemical, P, T, production
– Looking at tracers
• Indirect monitoring
– Passive geophysics (microseismic)
– Subsidence (tilt, InSAR, GPS)
– Electrical surveys (ERT and EMIT)
• Simulation of monitoring near complete
• Validate in field (2009-2010)
• Combination w/ CCS monitoring


Some planned and projected next steps:
• Optimization of coal volume extraction vs. subsidence
• Improved coupling and integration
• More complicated hydrology, coal transmissivity and composition
• More complicated chemistry
• Laboratory and field validation of Models

LLNL has begun to learn how UCG provides unique new strategies for CO2 capture and separation
Partial decarbonization:
•CO2 Separation from raw syngas
•downhole: LLNL Proprietary
Full carbon separation:
• Pre-combustion (H2O-gas shift+Selexol)
• Post-combustion (e.g., MEA)
• Air Separation and oxy-firing Separation Technology:
• Chemical sorption, Pressure Swing Adsorption
• Adv. membrane separation (e.g., SLIP, ionic transfer)
• Use excess pressure to drive carbon separation process
Geological sequestration:
• Conventional (e.g. saline formation)
• Reactor zone carbon sequestration

LLNL has begun to apply carbon sequestration technologies to UCG problems
UCG with conventional sequestration:
• Combining site assessment technology
• Combining hazard management options
• Combining monitoring tools and methods
• Assessment, fate and transport simulation, monitoring and hazard management for conventional sequestration projects
Reactor zone carbon sequestration (RZCS):
• Pre-conditions
• Deployment options and phasing
• Reactive transport simulation
• Flow in cleats
• Basic science

Conclusions
UCG is an advanced technology to produce syngas with distinct cost and environmental advantages
LLNL has been and continues to be a leader in UCG technology development and deployment
Opportunities are growing to test and develop advanced UCG to tackle tough economic, environmental, and carbon management problems