Outlook / Operation
It is planned to start installation of the receiver-reactor at the SSPS tower of Plataforma Solar de Almeria in 2008. Initial solar testing is scheduled to the end of 2008 and will last for 3 months. The test program includes the following:
1. Startup and shut down procedures including transition air to steam and steam to steam/coke, and vice versa.
2. Steady state test for evaluation of performance (variation of solar flux conditions, mass flow and feed gas composition).
3. Transient tests (controlled defocus of heliostats). Thermal inertia, response to operating conditions, etc
4. Long term testing to obtain information about lifetime aspects
5. Control tools for normal operation. Start-up procedure vs mass flow, steady-state conditions, shut-down parameters, etc
6. Chemical campaign. Chemical and receiver efficiencies, gas composition, maximum hydrogen conversion, etc
The objective of this initial campaign (points 1 to 4) will be to obtain operating experience with the system at power levels approaching the maximum load. Another test series (5 to 6) will be carried out to investigate the chemical behaviour of the whole installation.
A conceptual layout of a commercial 50 MWth gasification plant in Venezuela will complete this project. Results of the testing campaign will provide input to the pre-design of the gasification plant in Venezuela. The test data will be evaluated and compared with simulation tools in order to verify the calculations and to identify potential problems. The major components of a solar petcoke reforming plant will be analysed to assess their impact on the conceptual layout of the plant. For the upstream part of the gasification loop, the operation with different gaseous feedstocks (natural gas, weak gas, bio-gas, landfill gas), and concepts for gas cleaning and gas treatment will all be assessed.
[1] Z’Graggen A., Haueter P., Trommer D., Romero M., de Jesus J. C., Steinfeld A. (2005) Hydrogen production by steam-gasification of petroleum coke using concentrated solar power - II. Reactor design, testing, and modeling, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, Vol. 31, pp 797-811, 2006.
[2] Minchener, A. “Coal gasification for advanced power generation” Fuel, 84 (2005), 2222-2235.
[3] Z’Graggen A., Haueter P., Maag G., Vidal A., Romero M., Steinfeld A., “Hydrogen Production by Steam-Gasification of Petroleum Coke using Concentrated Solar Power - III. Reactor experimentation with slurry feeding”, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Vol. 32, pp. 992-996, 2007.
[4] Thorsten Denk, Philipp Haueter, Alfonso Vidal, Luis Zacarias and Antonio Valverde. Upscaling of a solar powered reactor for CO2-free syngas and hydrogen production by steam gasification of petroleum coke. 13th International Symposium on Concentrating Solar Power and Chemical Energy Technologies. June 20, 2006. Seville. Spain.
