EARLY ENTRANCE COPRODUCTION PLANT

Abstract

In 1999, the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a Cooperative Agreement to Texaco Energy Systems Inc. to provide a preliminary engineering design of an Early Entrance Coproduction Plant (EECP). Since the award, continuous and diligent work has been undertaken to achieve the design of an economical facility that makes strides toward attaining the goal of DOE's Vision 21 Program. The objective of the EECP is to convert coal and/or petroleum coke to power while coproducing transportation fuels, chemicals, and useful utilities such as steam. This objective is being pursued in a three-phase effort through the partnership of the DOE with prime contractor Texaco Energy Systems, LLC. (TES), the successor to Texaco Energy Systems, Inc. The key subcontractors to TES include General Electric (GE), Praxair, and Kellogg Brown and Root. ChevronTexaco provided gasification technology and Rentech Inc.'s Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) technology that has been developed for non-natural gas sources. GE provided gas turbine technology for the combustion of low energy content gas. Praxair provided air separation technology and KBR provided engineering to integrate the facility. A conceptual design was completed in Phase I and the report was accepted by the DOE in May 2001. The Phase I work identified risks and critical research, development, and testing that would improve the probability of technical success of the EECP. The objective of Phase II was to mitigate the risks by executing research, development, and testing. Results from the Phase II work are the subject of this report. As the work of Phase II concluded, it became evident that sufficient, but not necessarily complete, technical information and data would be available to begin Phase III - Preliminary Engineering Design. Work in Phase II requires additional technical development work to correctly apply technology at a specific site. The project's intended result is to provide the necessary technical, economic, and environmental information needed by industry to move the EECP forward to detailed design, construction, and operation. The decision to proceed with Phase III centers on locating a new site and favorable commercial and economic factors.