Current Activities
In addition to new infrastructure systems installed at the Southern Research Carbon-to-Liquids (C2L) Center in 2007 and 2008, technology development activities are underway that involve all of the processing steps contained in an integrated carbon-to-liquids system.
Photo courtesy of NREL/DOE
Two new gasification systems are being installed and will become operational in the spring and summer of 2008. One system will produce synthesis gas using woody or cellulosic biomass feed materials while the other will use municipal solid waste and other waste materials. These systems employ a unique metal catalyst and fluidized bed-based gasification designs. Both will have integrated synthesis gas clean-up systems designed to meet challenging requirements of syngas-to-Fischer-Tropsch (FT) liquids conversion systems or energy production devices. Synthesis gas cleaning is one of the most significant challenges facing fully integrated C2L systems, and the C2L Development Center is at the forefront of the design, fabrication, assessment, and optimization of these systems. Greenhouse gas reduction is also an integral part of the environmental performance of C2L systems; next generation systems are planned for initial development in 2008.
Photo courtesy of NREL/DOE
In 2008, the C2L Center plans to begin the erection and commissioning of a pilot-scale FT-liquids conversion system. This system will be necessary to develop and demonstrate fully integrated C2L systems and to optimize these systems for commercial scale-up and deployment. The liquids train will accept clean syngas from the reactors and syngas cleaning systems described above and from other reactors that are in the planning stage now. The clean syngas will be converted to FT-wax, then to FT-diesel and other FT-liquid products using a final processing step that is also planned for addition. These and other systems will be available to any C2L Center client.
In addition to technology development efforts, the C2L Center is engaged in assessing the end-use performance of FT fuels in a marine application. Other applications are also planned for demonstration in 2008.
