Gasification of an Indonesian subbituminous coal in a pilot-scale coal gasification system

Indonesian Roto Middle subbituminous coal was gasified in a pilot-scale dry-feeding gasification system and the produced syngas was purified with hot gas filtering and by low temperature desulfurization to the quality that can be utilized as a feedstock for chemical conversion. Roto middle coal produced syngas that has a typical composition of 36–38% CO, 14–16% H₂, and 5–8% CO₂. Particulates in syngas were 99.8% removed by metal filters at the operating temperature condition of 200–250°C. Sulfur containing compounds of H₂S and COS in syngas were also desulfurized in the Fe chelate system to yield less than 0.5 ppm level. The full stream gasification and syngas purifying system has been successfully operated and thus can provide clean syngas for the research on the conversion of syngas to chemicals like DME and on the future IGFC using fuel cells. This work was presented at the 6 ^th Korea-China Workshop on Clean Energy Technology held at Busan, Korea, July 4–7, 2006.