UCLA

A zero carbon dioxide emission process is developed, in which electrical power and formic acid are coproduced from coal. The overall reaction for the proposed process uses coal, oxygen, and water as reactants. A reaction cluster is proposed which consists of feasible chemical reactions. These are: gasification of coal to syngas; CO2 hydrogenation to formic acid; hydrogen combustion; and CO combustion. By adjusting the oxygen delivery ratio, the coal gasification is designed to be energetically self-sufficient, so that the whole process produces the largest amount of power. Temperature and heat load information for each process stream is obtained from the software simulation and used in carrying out a heat and power integration study. Through the use of heat engine and heat pump subnetworks, a feasible operating envelope for the considered process is identified. A preliminary technicoeconomic analysis is carried out, which establishes the superiority of the proposed process to current coal power plant technology.