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The Shell Coal Gasification Process (SCGP) is a dry-feed, membrane wall gasifier. There are four feed injectors oriented horizontally in the mid-section of gasifier vessel. Slag flows out of the bottom of the vessel and syngas flows out the top.
The greatest advantage of Shell’s coal gasification process is its feed flexibility. The 240 tpd SCGP demonstration built at Shell’s refinery in Deer Park, Texas, in the 1980s was able to process a full range of feedstocks including lignite, sub-bituminous coal, bituminous coal and pet coke. The biggest disadvantage has been its higher capital cost which is inherent in the more expensive nature of the gasifier design (boiler tubes are more expensive than refractory brick) and its dry feed system.
Shell began development of the SCGP process in the mid-1970s. In 1999, Shell and Krupp Uhde agreed to join forces in coal gasification. Krupp had developed a competing dry-feed, membrane wall gasifier with the trade name PRENFLO. The only commercial application of the PRENFLO process is the 280-MW Elcogas IGCC in Puertollano, Spain. However, now only Shell’s SCGP is being offered commercially by the two organizations. The first commercial application of SCGP was the 250-MW Demkolec IGCC built in 1994 in Buggenum, the Netherlands, now owned by Nuon. |
