Recent development in converting coal to clean fuels in China

• CTL/SNG projects in China are integrated to improve the energy efficiency and process economics.
• Dry feed entrained flow gasification are major choice for large scale gasification.
• It is proposed to combine the SNG and FTS processes by using moving bed gasification.
• New syngas conversion technologies are emphasized for efficient conversion catalyst.

To achieve energy security in an environmentally benign way, China has to convert a significant fraction of its abundant coal resource to clean fuels (liquid fuels or synthetic natural gas, SNG) to meet the fast increasing demand on transportation fuel and municipal gas. Following the successful operation of the 4000 bbl/d Yitai and Luan coal-to-liquids plants using the medium temperature Fischer Tropsch synthesis (MTFT) process technology from Synfuels China, tremendous progresses have been made in upscaling the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) process in China. Past experiences gained from the efforts in this field have shown that further exploration in the coal conversion field requires significant technological improvement on gasification, synthesis, and utilities related to integrating more efficient and environmentally friendly processes on the basis of current status of applications.