Last modified: 2017-10-17
Abstract
Nature has blessed Pakistan with abundant reserves of coal. At present, as we experience an intensifying energy crisis in the country brought about by depleting gas and its skyrocketing price; the untapped wealth of coal holds much promise as an alternate energy resource and the feasible material of choice to meet our future energy needs.
While natural gas with its higher hydrogen content is the preferred feedstock for fertilizer plants, ammonia synthesis using coal becomes an attractive prospect in the "low or no gas" scenario; both in terms of coal's ready availability and its comparably cheaper prices. This gets further support considering the projected outlook of fertilizer demand and Government's plan to phase out curtailment of natural gas for industrial use.
Coal gasification is the process of producing syngas from coal, air/oxygen and water. Replacement / retrofitting of existing ammonia Front-End process with coal gasification unit can provide significant reduction in the capital cost of new plant using coal as the raw material acquired through the "Coal Gasification Process".
The paper focuses in detail on the following;
§ How "Coal" can provide technically/ environmentally viable alternative solution to the raw material and fuel shortage problem in ammonia manufacturing plants.
§ Recent technological advancements in designing environmentally sustainable processes for steam and power generation plants by using coal as fuel.
In the current energy crisis, persistent reduction in the availability of natural gas can be effectively resolved in general by using coal brought in from the Thar reservoir as fuel, while dependency on natural gas as fuel in ammonia plants may be also be significantly minimized.