1999 Gasification Technologies Conference,

San Francisco, California, October 17-20, 1999

400 MWe IGCC Power Plant with HTW Gasification in the Czech
Republic
Z. Bucko, Sokolovska uhelna a.s. / Czech Republic; J. Engelhard, Rheinbraun AG,
J. Wolff, Krupp Uhde GmbH, H. Vierrath, Lurgi Envirotherm GmbH / Germany

Abstract
The former town gas plant Vresova, Czech Republic, was converted to 400 MWe
combined cycle power generation in 1996. Clean fuel gas is produced from local lignite,
one of the major energy reserves in the United States, Europe and other countries around
the world.
Gas purification (Rectisol) and other plant units have already been refurbished in recent
years. Various alternatives including entrained flow gasification have been
investigated by Sokolovska uhelna (SU), the plant operator, also with a view to solve the
problem concerning the existing inefficient and polluting gasification plant with its 26
reactors. Its replacement by HTW gasification developed by Rheinbraun especially for
lignite proved to be the most advantageous solution both technically and
economically.
The paper describes the present situation and provides technical and economic
information on the Vresova IGCC power plant with HTW gasification. It is expected that
the IGCC realized at Vresova will find many recurrences worldwide.

1.

Introduction

Local lignite presented the only major source of energy in the former Czechoslovakia.
Lignite was used for power generation and for the production of town gas and derived
chemicals. The situation changed rapidly with the lifting of the Iron Curtain in the early
nineties. Town gas was replaced by imported natural gas and many chemicals by
derivates from crude oil. After having investigated several alternatives, Sokolovska
uhelna, the operating company of the Vresova town gas plant (see figure 1), decided to
convert the town gas plant to IGCC power generation by installing two 9171 E gas /
steam turbine plants with a total output of 400 MWe. The IGCC plant has been operating
on fuel gas produced from coal since its start-up in 1996.
Gas purification (Rectisol) and other plants have been refurbished in recent years and
new ones like the sour gas processing plant were installed. The gasification plant with
its 26 reactors, although working reliably, remains the weak link in the process chain
because of its inefficiency and its undesired by-products such as tars and others.

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Sokolovska uhelna a.s. is a Czech stock company with business activities in brown coal
mining (11 m tpy), processing and sale of coal products and in electric power generation
(2,700 GWh per year) from lignite. For uninterrupted power generation from lignite in
the 400 MWe IGCC plant, there is thus the urgent need to also improve the gasification
process at the front end.

Fig. 1. Aerial view of Vresova

For this reason, Sokolovska uhelna looked into several alternatives, including entrained
flow gasification. HTW gasification, especially developed for lignite like the SU
feedstock proved to be the most attractive solution with regard to technical and
economic aspects. This was confirmed by a pre-feasibility study carried out in 1997 for
SU by the German companies Lurgi, Krupp Uhde, the engineering partners for the HTW
technology with support from Rheinbraun, the HTW licensor.

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After further internal investigations, SU commissioned a seven-month engineering and

environmental compatibility study with Energoproject, Prague and the above German
companies in April 1999. The purpose of the study is to investigate the technical,
environmental (EIS), and economic feasibility of the overall project, which is described
further below.

2.

The High Temperature Winkler Coal Gasification Process (HTW)

In the mid-70s, Rheinbraun embarked on the development of the High Temperature

Winkler (HTW) coal gasification process. Development work was first focused on the
production of chemical synthesis gases from lignite. In the mid-80s, the requirement of
utilizing the process in IGCC plants for efficient and favorably priced electricity
production constituted another important target as well. For more than 20 years,
Rheinbraun has intensively dealt with this task and developed, for both applications, an
economically effective and environmentally friendly gasification process, leading it to
industrial-scale maturity. The development costs were subsidized by the European
Union.
After having completed the investigations in a pilot plant, Rheinbraun started operating
the HTW demonstration plant in Berrenrath near Cologne early 1986 (Fig. 2) in order to
demonstrate the industrial-scale maturity of the process.

Fig. 2
HTW demonstration plant at Berrenrath.

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Fig. 3 shows the flow sheet of the plant in which, at a pressure of 10 bar / 150 psig, 25 t /
h of dried lignite served to produce an hourly volume of 34,000 mn / 1.3 million SCFH
of synthesis gas, with oxygen and steam being added as gasification agents. This
corresponds to a thermal capacity of 140 MW. The diameter of the fluidized-bed gasifier
measures 2.75 m / 9 ft.

Syngas Cooler Section

Dried Brown
Coal

Gasifier

Lock
Hopper
System

Gasification
Agents

Bottom Product

Water
Tube
Fire
Test Cooler Tube
Cooler

Fire Tube
Test Cooler
Water
Scrubber

Shift-Conversion

Synthesis Gas
CO2

Ceramic
Candle Filter

Cooling Screws

Filter Dust

Sulfur

to
Waste Water Treatment

Desulfurization

Sulfur
Recovery

HTW-fe3a.ds4

Fig. 3
Flow sheet of the HTW demonstration plant

Downstream of the gasifier, raw gas cooling, hot gas filtration (LLB design), water
scrubbing, shift conversion and desulfurization (Rectisol) are the major process steps for
producing a clean gas from coal.

The availability level attained within 12 years of operation is shown in Fig. 4.

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Av
ail
ab
ilit
y
of
th
e
HT
W
De
m
on
str
ati
on
Pl
an
t

100%
88

91
86

85

89

88
83

79

80%

72

72

60%
45

48

40%

20%

0%

86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97

Year
Cumulated performance data:
As of December 20, 1997
Operating hours gasifier
Lignite feed
Synthesis gas output
Methanol production

67,006 h
1.6
MT of dried lignite
2,131 Mm
800,000 t

Fig. 4
Availability level of the HTW demonstration plant
The excellent performance of the HTW process is underlined by an average availability
level of 84 % in the last 10 operating years. The availability of the German lignite-fired
power plant units of the 600 MW class is on a comparable level. This result was achieved
without the otherwise usual redundancies of a production or power plant and despite an
accompanying intensive R&D program.
Intensive research work in the last 10 years resulted in the following major findings.
Gasification

The HTW gasifiers of today can be built with the following capacity units:
Electricity production in IGCC plants:
600 MW (gross) in the case of gasification by means of O2 / steam
400 MW (gross) in the case of gasification by means of air.
Synthesis Gas / Methanol Production:
2,400 tons of methanol per day from 260,000 mn / h of synthesis gas.
With regard to feedstock, extensive experience has been gained with a wide range of coal
qualities. In addition to the gasification of Rhenish lignite with varying moisture and ash
contents of up to 25 %, we have also successfully tested Spanish and American hard coal
and Australian and Czech lignite (see also 3) as feedstock. Furthermore, good

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experience has been gathered with the gasification of waste, such as plastics, biomass,
household refuse and sewage sludge.

Raw Gas Cooling

Raw gas cooling is a key component of all gasification processes and concepts. Because
of its great importance, two concepts have been tested and successfully operated in the
Berrenrath demonstration plant: a horizontal fire tube cooler and a water tube cooler. For
both concepts, good results were achieved. The technology to be employed in the future
will depend on process engineering requirements. High pressures and supercritical steam
conditions in the field of IGCC application suggest the use of the water tube cooler. In
the case of steam pressures of < 150 bar / 2,100 psig and for the medium-pressure section
of the raw gas cooler, the fire tube technology is to be recommended for cost reasons.
Hot Gas Filtration
The Berrenrath operation started with a conventional water scrubber system. In later
years, Rheinbraun concentrated on the development of a hot gas particle filtration as a
prerequisite also for dry desulfurization. In close co-operation with Lurgi Lentjes
Babcock (LLB) a three-tier filter was developed and operated in Berrenrath, equipped
with 450 Schumacher candles. The filter proved to be successful during a total operating
period of 15,500 h and can be employed on an industrial scale.

Plant Concepts
On the basis of the many years' development work described above, industrial-scale plant
concepts for the optimized use of the HTW gasification process in combined cycle power
plants and for the production of synthesis gas were elaborated. The process pressure in
the gasifier amounts to approximately 30 bar. For coal gasification, O2 / steam or air can
be used. Both variants have been comprehensively tested. When a modern gas turbine
with an inlet temperature of 1,190 C (ISO) is employed, the efficiency of an
industrial-scale plant with an electric capacity of 1,000 MW (two lines) will be more than
50 %.
After 20 years of intensive testing, the development of the HTW process was finished.
The goal aimed at, namely to offer a well-tested and environmentally friendly process for
fuel gas and synthesis gas production, was achieved [1], [2].

The HTW Project at the Vresova Plant

The overall HTW project at Vresova comprises the HTW gasification plant as such, offsites, and auxiliary and other units such as coal preparation, air separation unit, power

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generation from steam produced in raw gas cooling etc. The following description
concentrates on the HTW gasification plant and its immediate ancilleries alone.
At present, crude gas is produced from lignite gasification in 26 fixed-bed gasifiers of
Czech design. The purpose of the HTW project is to replace those reactors by HTW
gasification for reasons given above. Existing units will continue to be used as much as
possible. Thus the new plant will have the following process battery limits :
- coal as specified to the HTW silo system
- cooled (230C / 450F), dedusted raw gas to the existing gas cooling unit
- gasifier bottom product and filter dust to SU for further utilization / disposal
The HTW gasification plant will comprise the following units :
- coal silos
- coal feeding under pressure
- HTW gasification
- raw gas cooling to 230C / 450F
- hot gas filtration
- recycle gas system (product gas to the gasifier for fluidization)
- inert gas system for pressurized coal feeding

As described above, one single HTW gasifier operated on oxygen / steam as gasification
agent could produce enough gas to fuel the 400 MWe gas / steam turbine power plant of
Sokolovska uhelna. For turn-down reasons SU requires an operating range of 30
100% of fuel gas production two gasification trains of 50% capacity each will be
provided.
Gasifier key data are as follows :
- capacity : 82 tons of lignite per hour
- pressure : 27.5 bar / 390 psig
- gas outlet temperature : 920C / 1,700F
It can easily be calculated that the above capacity does not suffice for a 400 MWe (net)
electric power generation. The limiting factor, however, is the existing gas purification
plant, which can handle only 240,000 mn3 / h / 9 million SCFH. This amounts to about
70% of the fuel gas demand of the power plant. The difference is made up by natural
gas.
In principle it would also be possible to operate the HTW gasifier with air / steam as
gasification agent. Oxygen was selected here because of the above capacity limitations in
the existing gas purification system.
As far as the chemical and physical properties are concerned, the Czech brown coal f SU
behaves in a very similar way compared to Rhenish lignite. Comparative investigations
with both coals in a pilot plant showed the same good and efficient gasification behavior.

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This allows the transferability of the design to large scale application with SU lignite
without restrictions.
The total investment cost (without financing cost) for the HTW plant amounts to approx.
100 million EURO / 90 million USD.
The project execution time is estimated at 36-42 months. The project will be carried out
in phases. The decision to build will be taken in 2000 at the earliest after having
completed the basic and environmental engineering and financing is secured. Thus startup is scheduled for 2003.
Sokolovska uhelna / CZ, the above German companies, five further companies and three
technical universities from five EU countries filed a proposal in June 1999 for support
from the European FIFTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAM under the acronym VreCoPower.
It is expected that support will be granted for this innovative project as described below
- for technical and strategic reasons and given the involvement of multi-nationals. The
artist's view (figure 5 and 6) gives a good impression of the new 45m / 150 ft. high HTW
plant.

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Fig. 5 and 6. Artist's view of the HTW plant

HTW Innovations
The structure of the HTW gasification plant planned to be built at Vresova corresponds in
principle to the concept of the HTW demonstration plant. The industrial-scale maturity
which was demonstrated there with high levels of availability during many years of
operation will thus be an excellent basis for a successful implementation of the project.
The application of the HTW process at Vresova will, however, also call for the
implementation of innovative steps. These include an increase in capacity and process
pressure according to the requirements of the existing gas turbines. In addition, some
new process steps are planned to be implemented which will contribute to further
technical and economic process improvements. In detail, the Vresova project will be
characterized by the following innovative aspects:
Plant capacity
At Vresova, a coal throughput of approx. 80 t / h and a process pressure of 30 bar / 450
psig will be required. At the HTW demonstration plant, the coal throughput amounted to
approx. 25 t / h at a process pressure of 10 bar / 145 psig.
For the Vresova design, the results of the pressurized HTW gasification plant at
Wesseling, Germany will be applied which was operated in the years from 1989 to 1992
with a maximum coal throughput of 7 t / h and at a pressure of 25 bar / 350 psig to
determine the performance data of the HTW gasifier for IGCC applications. The

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operating results obtained there with higher specific throughputs and at an increased
process pressure - combined with the experience gained during the HTW demonstration
plant operation - provide a reliable basis for extrapolation.

Plant configuration and gasifier control

At Vresova, the HTW gas island and the combined cycle power island will be controlled
by a common master controller. The HTW gasifier will be controlled by a fuzzy logic
control system, the suitability of which has already been proved at the HTW
demonstration plant. [3]

Coal feeding system

Coal feeding into the gasifier will be implemented with a new concept that has already
been tested at the HTW demonstration plant. It permits operation without a lock hopper
system and reduces the plant's own power requirements.

Direct desulfurization
The direct desulfurization process replaces the wet desulfurization usually applied, thus
permitting a considerable simplification and cost reduction with respect to the overall
process. During direct desulfurization, the sulfur components in the gas are converted
into elemental sulfur through the addition of an oxygen containing gas; in the hot gas
filter, this elemental sulfur is separated from the process together with the dust. After
successful preliminary testing at the HTW demonstration plant, this process is first to be
investigated in a bypass at Vresova before industrial-scale implementation in the main
flow will be performed in a second step.

Ammonia recirculation
The ammonia separated from the gas in the wet scrubber will, for the first time, be
recycled to the gasifier on an industrial scale; there it will be converted to nitrogen and
hydrogen. A possible disposal problem is thus solved in a simple and efficient way.

4.

Outlook

The HTW process is especially well suited for lignites, sub-bituminous and reactive
bituminous coals. Such coals represent the major solid fuel reserves in the world, which
are mined in many countries the United States, Europe, India etc. After successful
operation of the HTW plant at Vresova, it is expected that this efficient and

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environmentally friendly technology will find many further applications worldwide for
power generation and synthesis gas production alone or as co-products.

5.

References

[1] High Temperature Winkler (HTW) Coal Gasification

A Fully Developed Process For Methanol and Electricity Production
1998 Gasification Technologies Conference, San Francisco
W. Renzenbrink, R. Wischnewski, J. Engelhard, A. Mittelstdt,
Rheinbraun AG
[2] Recycling of Processed Household Refuse by Co-gasification with Lignite in the
Fluidized Bed
Conference Disposal of Waste, Veitshchheim, 1998
H.-P. Schiffer, A. Mittelstdt, R. Wischnewski, Rheinbraun AG, Cologne
C. Lttge, J. Klein, Kruppp-Uhde GmbH, Dortmund
[3] Fuzzy Logic Control for a Commercial Coal Gasification
Automatisierungstechnische Praxis 39 (1997) 7
I. Schumacher, A. Mittelstdt, M. Sinkuler, D. Prmann, B. Krause,
C. von Altrock

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