The Technology

WES’s new gasification technology integrates the company’s highly innovative breakthroughs in gasification and related sub-systems into a complete plant configuration that provides net capital cost reductions of at least 40% (as well as significantly reduced interest during construction) and significant efficiency improvements. The breakthrough of substantially increased hydrogen production and equipment size reductions provides cost savings large enough to make coal gasification systems the low-cost carbon capture option for power generation and coal to produces, thereby enabling the reduction of global emissions on an economical basis. The innovative technology and advancements will provide an extensive range of benefits for industry and the environment. These benefits include:

  • Near-Zero Emissions and Carbon Capture WES will have near-zero emissions with CO2 capture, and easily meet requirements of EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).
  • High Efficiency Efficiency of ~42% (HHV), even with 90% CO2 capture – major improvement over other technologies (typically 32% when CCS included).
  • Low Capital and Operating Costs Even with Carbon Capture Even with CO2 capture, WES technology will reduce capital costs by ~40%: sources of savings include small modular, factory-manufactured equipment; high plant efficiency; and rapid construction schedule (hence lower financing costs).
  • Near-Zero Water Usage WES’s system nearly eliminates net requirements for water: water for steam is supplied primarily from feedstock and recapture.
  • Modular Construction and Short Construction Schedule The small size of equipment means plant can be designed for modular construction: most equipment can be factory made, transported, and rapidly installed at plant site, cutting capital costs and construction schedules and improving quality and reliability.
  • Small Plant Footprint Smaller equipment means a smaller plant footprint, which reduces quantities (hence costs) of materials and construction worker hours.

Applications

The new gasification technology can be configured into a number of applications as follows:

Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC): The simplest application is IGCC that can be used to produce electricity with significant efficiency and capture 95% of the CO2 produced. This should prove valuable for emissions reductions in Asian nations particularly.

Polygeneration: The new technology has the capability to operate in a flexible polygeneration configuration where the plant can coproduce multiple products such as power, liquid fuels (clean diesel etc.), chemicals and CO2. To maximize the plant’s economic value, production can be varied in response to market conditions, for example, power production can be maximized when demand and prices are high, and the other products produced in off-peak hours.

Coal to Products: Stand-alone facilities can be built for the new gasification technology to produce a number of salable commodities, all with capture of any excess CO2. These include: liquids (diesel, naphtha etc.), chemicals (methanol, olefins, etc.), ammonia for fertilizer, and CO2.

Repowering of Existing Plants: Repowering can be performed on existing coal-fired power plants around the world using this new gasification technology to reduce emissions that couldn’t otherwise be economically decarbonized. At the same time, criteria pollutant emissions and water consumption will be substantially reduced.