Aspen Plus

Aspen Plus Pipeline Gas from Coal Model

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Contents
1 Introduction .........................................................................................................1

2 Components .........................................................................................................2

3 Process Description..............................................................................................3

4 Physical Properties...............................................................................................5

5 Chemical Reactions ..............................................................................................6

Coal Gasification ..............................................................................................6
Wet Coal Drying.....................................................................................6
Coal Decomposition ................................................................................6
Coal Gasification ....................................................................................7
Shift Reaction ..................................................................................................7
Methanation ....................................................................................................8
Fuel Gas Combustion ........................................................................................8

6 Simulation Approaches.........................................................................................9

7 Simulation Results .............................................................................................11

8 Conclusions ........................................................................................................13

Contents iii
1 Introduction

This model simulates a process to manufacture pipeline gas from coal. The
model includes the following features:
A set of chemical species including conventional, solid and
nonconventional for this process.
Typical process areas including: coal crushing and screening, gasification,
shift reaction, methanation, power generation, and the main streams
connecting these units.
The specification for nonconventional solid components.
Definition of property model parameters with user data.

1 Introduction 1
2 Components

The table below lists the components modeled in the simulation.

Component ID Type Component name Formula

H2O CONV WATER H2O

N2 CONV NITROGEN N2
O2 CONV OXYGEN O2
COAL NONC
NO2 CONV NITROGEN-DIOXIDE NO2
NO CONV NITRIC-OXIDE NO
S CONV SULFUR-RHOMBIC-MONOCLINIC S
SO2 CONV SULFUR-DIOXIDE O2S
SO3 CONV SULFUR-TRIOXIDE O3S
H2 CONV HYDROGEN H2
CL2 CONV CHLORINE CL2
HCL CONV HYDROGEN-CHLORIDE HCL
C SOLID CARBON C
CO CONV CARBON-MONOXIDE CO
CO2 CONV CARBON-DIOXIDE CO2
ASH NONC
CH4 CONV METHANE CH4
H2S CONV HYDROGEN-SULFIDE H2S

COAL and ASH are specified as nonconventional solid components. The only
properties calculated for nonconventional components are enthalpy and
density. Aspen Plus includes special models for estimating these properties for
coal and coal-derived materials. See item 4 Physical Properties for more
details.
Since there are conventional solid and nonconventional solid components in
this process, you must select the stream class as MCINCPSD type on the
Setup | Specifications form.

2 2 Components
3 Process Description

Figure 1 shows the process flowsheet which includes: coal sizing and
screening, gasification, shift reaction, methanation, and power generation.

Figure 1: Coal Gasification Process Flowsheet

The large coal particles (no less than 1mm), are delivered to the three stage
coal crushing and screening area for particle reduction. After crushing, more
than 93 % of the coal particles are less than 0.18mm and no particles are
larger than 0.36mm. Water is mixed with coal feed to aid conveying and
crushing. The water phase is separated from the coal before it enters the
gasification area.
The small coal particles (containing 25 wt% moisture), are dried using hot
nitrogen gas (132C) to reduce the moisture to 10 wt%. The dried coal, with
pure oxygen and LP steam is fed to the gasification furnace to produce crude
coal gas (908C, 2.4Mpa). A dust wiper is used to remove the ash generated
in the gasification furnace from the crude coal gas. 90% of the crude coal gas
is fed to the shift reaction area, and the remaining gas is fed to the power
generation area.
In the shift reaction area, 65 % of the feed coal gas is cooled to 380C, mixed
with LP steam and passed through two shift reactors in series. To get a higher
equilibrium fraction of CO, the gas from the first shift reactor is cooled to

3 Process Description 3
 210C before passing to the second shift reactor. After shift reaction, the gas
mixed with that did not undergo shift reaction is fed to the methanation unit.
In the methanation unit the by-product H2S is removed from the coal gas.
Then carbon particles, S, SO2 and SO3 are removed. After that, coal gas is
fed to the methanation reactor in which almost all of the CO is converted to
methane. The product gas from the methanation reactor is purified to remove
all of the acid gas (HCL, CO2) and almost all of the water.
Mixed with hot air, 10 % of the coal gas from the gasification furnace is fed to
a gas turbine. Waste heat from the gases exiting the turbine is used to boil
water for use in a two stage steam turbine. The turbines are connected to
electrical generators.

Process summary
Area Purpose

Coal Crushing and

Screening Reduce coal particle size
Coal Gasification Decompose coal to produce coal gas
Shift Reaction Change H2/CO ratio for methanation
Methanation Coal gas purification and methanation to produce pipeline gas
Power Generation Burn coal gas to generate electrical power

4 3 Process Description
4 Physical Properties

The global property option used in this model is PR-BM. This option set is
used for the gasification and downstream unit operations. The SOLIDS
property option is used for the coal crushing and screening section.
The enthalpy model for both COAL and ASH is HCOALGEN and the density
model for both components is DCOALIGT. The HCOALGEN model includes a
number of empirical correlations for heat of combustion, heat of formation
and heat capacity. You can select one of these correlations by specifying an
option code in the Properties | Advanced | NC Props form, the table below
lists the specification of this model:
COAL ASH

Code Code
Model Parameter Value Correlation Value Correlation

Heat of
Combustion 6 User Specification 1 Boie
Standard Heat of Heat-of-combustion-based
Enthalpy Formation 1 correlation 1
Heat Capacity 1 Kirov 1 The same
Elements in their standard as those of
Enthalpy Basis 1 states at 298.15K and 1 atm 1 COAL

The heat of combustion for COAL, is specified on the Properties |

Parameters | Pure Component form. Select the object HEAT and click the
Edit button to view or change the value of the parameter HCOMB.
The density method DCOALIGT is specified on the Properties | Advanced |
NC Props form. This model is based on equations from IGT (Institute of Gas
Technology). The Aspen Properties User Guide, Chapter 6 gives more
details on this.

4 Physical Properties 5
5 Chemical Reactions

The chemical reactions in this process are very complicated. This model uses
a relatively simple approach to represent the reactions. In this model, some
trace reaction products such as COS, CS2 are not considered. The reactors
are modeled with the built in models RStoic, RYield, REquil and RGibbs. The
table below lists the reaction units and corresponding Aspen Plus models:
Reaction Unit Reaction Type Aspen Plus Model

Wet Coal Drying Fractional Conversion RStoic

Coal Decomposition Yield RYield
Coal Gasification Equilibrium RGibbs
Equilibrium (Temp.
Shift Reaction Approach) REquil
Equilibrium (Temp.
Methanation Approach) REquil
Fuel Gas Combustion Equilibrium RGibbs

Reactions in each reactor and their specifications in Aspen Plus model are
listed as follows:

Coal Gasification
Wet Coal Drying
No. Stoichiometry Fraction conversion Based component

1 COAL0.0555084 H2O 0.2 COAL

Coal Decomposition
Component Bass Yield

H2O Mass 0.2

ASH Mass 0.2
C(CIPSD) Mass 0.1
H2 Mass 0.1
N2 Mass 0.1

6 5 Chemical Reactions
 Component Bass Yield

CL2 Mass 0.1

S Mass 0.1
O2 Mass 0.1

Since the reaction products include conventional solid C and nonconventional

solid ASH, you should specify the PSD for these two components and
Component Attributes for ASH.
Note: The component yield of the coal decomposition product depends on the
coal ULTANAL attributes, not on the yield specification.

Coal Gasification
Component Valid Phases

H2O Mixed
N2 Mixed
O2 Mixed
NO2 Mixed
NO Mixed
S Mixed
SO2 Mixed
SO3 Mixed
H2 Mixed
CL2 Mixed
HCL Mixed
C PureSolid
CO Mixed
CO2 Mixed
CH4 Mixed
H2S Mixed

Coal gasification is modeled using the Gibbs free energy minimum method in
the RGibbs model. This determines the equilibrium composition of the
products resulting from the many reactions that can occur.

Shift Reaction
No. Stoichiometry Specification Type

1 CO + H2O H2 + CO2 Temperature approach (0 F)

5 Chemical Reactions 7
 Methanation
No. Stoichiometry Specification Type

1 CO + 3 H2 CH4 + H2O Temperature approach (0 F)

Fuel Gas Combustion

This uses the minimum of Gibbs free energy method to model the equilibrium
of complex reactions and considers all components as possible products.

8 5 Chemical Reactions
6 Simulation Approaches

Unit Operations The major unit operations are represented by Aspen Plus
models as shown in the following table (excludes reactor units):

Aspen Plus Unit Operation Models Used in the Model

Unit Operation Aspen Plus Model Comments / Specifications

Coal Crushing Crusher Rigorous simulation of PSD

Coal Particles Screen Rigorous simulation of the separation
Screening efficiency of the screen
Dust Removing Sep Simplified simulation of Gas/Solid separation
by fixed split fraction specification
Moisture Gas Flash2 Rigorous equilibrium flash simulation
Separating
H2S Removing Sep Simplified simulation of removing H2S from
gas by fixed split fraction specification
C Removing Sep Simplified simulation of gas/solid separation
by fixed split fraction specification
Acid Gas Removing Sep Simplified simulation of removing acid from
gas by fixed split fraction specification
Air Compressor Compr Calculates power required
Boiler HeatX + MHeatX Simplified simulation of the generation of HP
steam in a boiler
Turbine Compr Calculates power produced

6 Simulation Approaches 9
 Streams - Streams represent the material and energy flows in and out of the
process. Streams can be of three types: Material, Heat, and Work. For the
nonconventional solid components in the coal feed stream FDCOAL, the
specification of PSD and component attributes is required. The values used
are:

PSD Specification
Interval Lower limit (cm) Upper limit (cm) Weight fraction

1 0.000000000 0.000044013 0
2 0.000044013 0.000063002 0
3 0.000063002 0.000087996 0
4 0.000087996 0.000124990 0
5 0.000124990 0.000176990 0
6 0.000176990 0.000249990 0
7 0.000249990 0.000353870 0
8 0.000353870 0.000499870 0
9 0.000499870 0.000707130 0
10 0.000707130 0.001000050 0.1
11 0.001000050 0.002000100 0.1
12 0.002000100 0.004000000 0.2
13 0.004000000 0.008000000 0.35
14 0.008000000 0.016000000 0.25

Component Attributes
PROXANAL ULTANAL SULFANAL

Element Value Element Value Element Value

MOISTURE 25 ASH 9.2 PYRITIC 0.6
FC 45.1 CARBON 67.1 SULFATE 0.1
VM 45.7 HYDROGEN 4.8 ORGANIC 0.6
ASH 9.2 NITROGEN 1.1
CHLORINE 0.1
SULFUR 1.3
OXYGEN 16.4

10 6 Simulation Approaches
7 Simulation Results

The Aspen Plus simulation main flowsheet is shown in Figure 2.

S hi ft Re acti on Me th an ati on

2 SHIFT T OM ET H PRO DG AS
H IERA RCHY H IERARCH Y

SHIFTSEC M ET HANTN

C oal C rus h in g an d S cre e ni n g G asi fi cati on

FDCOAL COA L1 WET -CO AL GSFRG A S SPL T 0

HIERARCH Y HIERARCH Y

CLASS

COA LPREP GAS IFCN

T OFUE L G

Powe r G en e ration
W
T -WO RK
H IERA RCHY

G ASTURB

Figure 2. Coal Gasification Main Flowsheet in Aspen Plus

7 Simulation Results 11
 No errors occur in the simulation. Warnings occur due to physical property
parameters PC and Freeze Point of carbon being outside the normal range.
Key simulation results are shown in the following tables:

Key Stream Simulation Results

Flowsheet Variable Value Unit

Coal Feed 937121.8 kg/hr

Water for crushing 1094400 kg/hr
Wet-coal Drying Gas 3904674.1 kg/hr
O2 for Gasification 209227.2 kg/hr
LP Steam for Gasification 4535.9 kg/hr
LP Steam for Shift Reaction 793786.6 kg/hr
Air for Combustion 2290641.4 kg/hr
Feed BFW for Boiler (Recycled) 283041.6 kg/hr
Pipeline Gas 117327.0 kg/hr
Product Power 463.36 MW
Water for Crushing 1094400 kg/hr
Exhaust Drying Gas 4058492.2 kg/hr
ASH 34252.4 kg/hr
Acid Water 1414800 kg/hr
Water rich in H2S 47113 kg/hr
C Suspension 40987 kg/hr
Waste Flue Gas 2386900 kg/hr

Key Process Simulation results

Process Variable Value Unit

Coal Particle Size < 0.354 mm

Gasification Furnace
Temperature 2215 C
The First Shift Reactor
Temperature 483.0 C
The Second Shift Reactor
Temperature 221.1 C
H2/CO mole Ratio After
Shift Reaction 4.320
Combuster Temperature 958.9 C
Air/fuelgas (not including
solid C) mole Ratio 15.07

12 7 Simulation Results
8 Conclusions

This model provides a useful description of the process for producing pipeline
gas. The simulation takes advantage of Aspen Pluss capabilities for modeling
solid components. This includes tracking component attributes and particle
size distribution, and estimating properties for coal.
The model may be used as a guide for understanding the process and the
economics, and also as a starting point for more sophisticated models for
plant design and specifying process equipment.

8 Conclusions 13