Fluidised bed gasification of low grade South African coals

Abstract

To cope with increasing electricity demand, South Africa will need to install approximately 1000 MW of generating capacity per year for the foreseeable future. Whilst there is increasing pressure to adopt non-fossil fuel electricity generating technologies, it is a fact that South Africa will continue to exploit its abundant coal reserves. The challenge, therefore, is to utilise the coal as efficiently as possible, in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. This paper describes an on-going investigation into one potential Clean Coal Technology (CCT), namely fluidised bed gasification. Coal gasification holds the potential benefits of increased efficiency, reduced water consumption and co-production of liquid and gaseous fuels and chemicals