New Syngas Reactor to be Tested at Pulp Mill

Diversified Energy Corporation and Evergreen Pulp, Inc have announced that they formed a partnership and submitted a proposal to pursue an advanced gasification project based on a molten-metals reactor technology,called HydroMax®. funded by the state of California.

HydroMax is an advanced gasification system that offers significant benefits compared to conventional techniques.The process offers several critical advantages to industrial-scale customers, including a compact size for simple integration, biomass feedstock flexibility, synthetic gas (syngas) output variability, limited emissions output, and attractive economics. By leveraging proven processes from the metals and mining industries, the HydroMax technique intends to break the status-quo paradigm by delivering gasification systems at up to 50% the cost of traditional systems, with 80+% efficiency, and demonstrating high availability.

Utilizing an iron/tin molten metal based reactor, the HydroMax system produces both carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2) in separate and distinct streams from the reactor. Using two distinct steps (shown as Step A and Step B), the HydroMax process begins with a molten iron/tin (FeSn) bath heated to 1300° C. In Step A, steam is injected into the bath which is then thermo-chemically split resulting in H2 gas (released) and oxidized iron. After the Fe is oxidized, steam injection ceases and a carbon source (coal, petroleum coke, tires, biomass, etc) is injected into the reactor (Step B). Carbon has a high affinity to oxygen and reduces the oxidation of Fe to its pure form and produces a CO-rich syngas which is released for use.

For applications requiring hydrogen, a traditional gasifier must first produce syngas, then use portions of this syngas to produce hydrogen. For fuels synthesis, the syngas and hydrogen must then be combined in the correct ratio dependent upon the particular fuel desired.

The proposed project would gasify fine wood residue to create a syngas of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which it would burn in place of natural gas.This syngas will be pumped into the burners of a process heating facility, offsetting the natural gas currently being used. The mill already produces about 95 percent of its own electricity and most of its overall energy from sawmill waste. But despite that, the energy-intensive pulp-making process still draws about 300 therms of gas each day through the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. pipeline.

"We would be completely free of fossil fuel,” said Evergreen Senior Resource Manager Rex Bohn.

Evergreen Pulp, Inc is the largest unbleached kraft pulp mill in the U.S. The proposed project for the state of California will place a single demonstration-scale reactor at the mill.