1
Coal Gasification in Indonesia
This paper is submitted to the Coal Technology AssociationThe
33th International Technical Conference on Coal Utilization &
Fuel SystemsJune 1-5, 2008, Sheraton Sand Key Hotel, Clearwater,
Florida, USA.
byDr. Bukin Daulay
Suganal, Chem. Eng.Ukar W. Soelistijo, Ph.D (Retired)Senior
Researchers
Research and Development Centre for Mineral and Coal Technology
Agency of Research and Development for Energy and Mineral Resource
Ministry of Energy and Mineral ResourcesRepublic of
Indonesia2007Acknowledgement
The paper entitled Coal Gasification in Indonesia is submitted
to The 33th International Technical Conference on Coal Utilization
& Fuel SystemsJune 1-5, 2008, Sheraton Sand Key Hotel,
Clearwater, Florida, USA.This paper is made possible through the
cooperation between the colleagues at the Research and Development
Center for Mineral and Coal Technology Bandung, The Research Centre
for Tea and Chincona and The State-owned Fertilizer Plant.Bandung,
November 2007List of Content
Acknowledgement ... 2List of contents 2
Abstract 31. Introduction . 32. Coal Potentials in Indonesia ..
43. Program and Progress of Coal Gasification in Indonesia .. 44.
Chronological Progress of Investigation of Coal Gasification in
Indonesia . 4 4.1 Laboratory scale (at MCTRDC) . 4 4.2 Pilot plant
scale at Gambung Tea Plantation 4 4.3 Semi Commercial plant scale
at Palimanan Cirebon West Java .. 5 4.4 Future trends 55.
International status of large scale coal gasification 56.
Concluding remarks .. 5References .. 6Enclosures .. 7Coal
Gasification in IndonesiabyDr. Bukin Daulay
Suganal, Chem. Eng.Ukar W. Soelistijo, Ph.D (Retired)
Senior Researchers at the Research and Development Centre for
Mineral and Coal Technology, Ministry of Energy and Mineral
Resources, IndonesiaEmail: [email protected]
In lieu with the Indonesia energy policy, due to limited natural
oil reserves especially and gas reserves later on in the country
then the utilization of Indonesian coal is very prospective. It
means that coal is ready for making synthetic oil (synoil) as well
as synthetic gas (syngas) due to the available large of coal
resources in the country. At the mean time Indonesia is just trying
to do investigation of both synthetic fuel development. In the case
of possibility on producing synthetic gas from coal at pilot plant
scale, the result of syngas has been successfully utilized as fuel
gas at the tea plantation for drying the tea leaves. Also the
effort of producing syngas from coal substituting diesel oil fuel
for diesel generating power plant has been developed at semi
commercial plant scale. Both applications are most likely
tech-economically feasible.Based on the program of coal
gasification in Indonesia it is expected that beyond the year of
2011 the commercial plant would have been developed. The coal
resource in the country is amounted to about 61 billion tonnes and
enough to satisfy the future demand for energy for another 100-150
years to come.Key words: Energy diversification, Indonesian coal,
coal gasification, synthetic gas. 1. Introduction
As a whole, either direct or indirect utilization of coal would
be able to be in function as bridge of energy from the present era
of oil and gas toward the future era of new and renewable energy.
Based on the available coal resource in Indonesia of around 61
billion tons, it would be able to supply energy as long as 100
years, at the extraction recovery of 75%, at the level of
production of 400 million tons of coal per year.
To improve the status of the coal reserves in the country is
required to be carried out to face the transition period from the
era of oil and gas to the era of new and renewable energy, by using
the more attractive new incentive of investment, due to the
available coal as the greatest national fossil energy source which
could be able to respond it within the next 150 years to come. It
is also expected that the implementation of autonomy does not
restrain the encouragement of the process of investment, however,
it is just precisely to support it for the sake of the regional
development. The encouragement of the real program of coal
utilization vertical diversification through briquette making,
gasification and liquefaction is required. The national primary
energy mix at the present time coal consumption is of about 16.92%
(or 1057.89 million BOE) out of the total national primary energy
demand of 1057.89 million BOE and is projected to be around of
32.7% - 34.5 % (or 1003.4 1084.1 million BOE) out of the total
national primary energy demand of 3138.9 3151.4 million BOE in the
year of 2025 7).The exacerbation of the national energy development
program is also required, in terms of carrying out completely
exploration in order to obtain the final measured reserves of coal,
where within the period of 100-150 years, it is required exactly
the certainty of life time of coal reserves in the country, so that
while within that period of time coal will have been exhausted and
there will be still a lead time to develop new and renewable energy
sources at intensive commercial scale.A balance re-allocation of
national depletion allowance is necessarily required which is split
from the revenue coming from the fossil mineral fuel to support the
intensive resource exploration as well the development of
technology of utilization anticipating the ever increasing national
energy demand in the future. In the long term, utilization of coal
as fuel is necessarily extended to be as raw material of the
advanced industry, or not just as fuel, which is having added value
that is greater than that of just as fuel.2. Coal Potentials in
IndonesiaCoal resource potential in Indonesia is mainly distributed
in two islands i.e. Sumatera island and Kalimantan island. It is
amounted to 61 billion tonnes, where 53% is mainly located in
eastern and southern Kalimantan and 47% in southern Sumatera area.
The remainder is distributed in other areas of the country. (See
Figure 1.1 and Table 1.1). The characteristics of the coal reserves
can be seen on Table 1.2, where13% is high calorific value of coal
and the remainder is mostly low and moderate calorific value of
coal or low rank coal. It is known that low rank coal is suitable
for gasification process.3. Program and Progress of Coal
Gasification in Indonesia
Program of coal gasification in Indonesia can be seen on Figure
3.1. The progress can be figured out as follows. Based on the
laboratory scale results of investigation, gasification at the
pilot plant scale had been successfully carried out at the tea
plantation for drying tea leaves. The capacity of the gasification
pilot plant is 50 kg of coal per day at Gambung West Java.
Presently the another pilot plant of gasification has been
developed to produce low Btu gas for substituting diesel oil fuel
in the diesel generating power plant.4. Chronological Progress of
Investigation of Coal Gasification in Indonesia
Actually the utilization of gas produced from coal had been
carried out since the Dutch occupation era through gasification
plant by using coal carbonization technology that produced coke
besides town gas. The utilization of coal through gasification for
tea leaf drying at the tea plantation has been conducted by RDCMCT
at Gambung Ciwidey, West Java. Utilization coal through
gasification is necessarily encouraged at large scale of production
under the consideration with the reality that the large amount of
low rank coal is available in the country, in the purpose of
meeting the larger demand for fuel e.g. fertilizer plant. Material
survey had been carried out by the Team of Coal Gasification of the
Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Indonesia in 1997-2001
in the purpose of taking inventory the characteristics of the
Indonesian coals and the various world-wide technology of coal
gasification, even the effort was enlarged on the possibility on
utilizing coal bed methane that is very large available associated
within the coal seam deposit. 4.1 Laboratory scale (at
RDCMCT)Laboratory Scale of Indonesian Coal Gasification Using
Fluidized Reactor (Figure 4.0). 4.2 Pilot plant scale at Gambung
Tea Plantation (Figure 4.1)At the stage of pilot plant scale
investigation on the tea leaf drying at the tea plantation, the
production of 1 kg dry tea leaf requires 0.3-1.5 liter of
subsidized diesel fuel. The component of fuel cost is around 11-20%
and it depends on the type of tea leaf. The comparison of fuel
utilization, if the diesel fuel is used of about 20 liters/hour,
while by using coal is of around 40 kg/hour through gasification.
By using coal will reduce the cost of 40%. The price of diesel fuel
is of Rp. 513.37/liter (US$ 0.06/liter) and the price of coal is of
Rp. 500/kg (US$ 0.056/kg). Based on the price of diesel fuel is of
Rp.5,400/liter (US$ 0.6/liter) and coal is of Rp 500/kg, it looks
likely that gasification of coal could be promising and
competitive. The capacity of gasification unit is of 50 kg of coal
per hour, where the capital investment of Rp. 200 million (around
US$ 22,300) is required. 4.3 Pilot plant scale of synthetic gas for
diesel generating power plant at Palimanan Cirebon West Java
(Figure 4.2).Presently the pilot plant of gasification has been
developed to produce low Btu gas for substituting diesel oil fuel
in diesel generating power plant. The capacity is of 200 kg of coal
per hour to produce low Btu gas of 2.88 million BTU per hour and it
is able to supply a diesel generating power plant of 250 kVA by
using fuel mix of 80-90% of synthetic gas and 20-10 % of diesel oil
fuel for initiating ignition. 4.4 Future trendsCoal gasification is
most likely prospective in the future, in consideration with the
national energy policy and the ever increasing uneasiness on the
environmental impact due to effect of coal burning emission.
Moreover, besides as fuel, synthesis gas from coal can also
utilized as raw material of various chemical industry, synthetic
fuel oil, and synthetic natural gas (SNG). In lieu with the
National Energy Policy, which directs the Indonesian coal
utilization on clean coal technology application, the Agency for
Energy and Mineral R & D Ministry of Energy and Mineral
Resources would continuously carries out of making low calorific
gas for small/moderate industry and generating power plant, and
making moderate calorific gas for fuel or farther processed to
produce synthesis gas (syngas), then it could be utilized as raw
material of chemical industry, fertilizer, synthetic fuel oil, and
synthetic natural gas.The other scale of gasification from the
international world-wide has been studied and compiled by the Team
of Coal Gasification of the Indonesia Ministry of Energy and
Mineral Resources to support the efforts of enlarging coal
gasification to support energy diversification in the country in
the future.In 2009 it is expected that the first commercial plant
would be developed and well-equipped with a continuous construction
for ammonia, liquid fuel, hydrogen supply and other chemical
production.It is programmed a utilization of synthesis gas to
produce fertilizer under the cooperation between the Agency of
R&D for Energy and Mineral Resource, the State-owned Fertilizer
Company (PT. Pupuk Sriwijaya (PT. PUSRI)) and Japan (IHI &
Sojitz) (Figure 4.3)5. International status of large scale coal
gasification
International status of several large scale coal gasification
can be seen on Figures 5.1 and 5.2. It may includes several
processes as follows: Twin Ichikawa-Harima Heavy Industries
Gasifier, commercial syngas plant and its application and its
economic viability.6. Concluding remarks6.0 The utilization of low
Btu gas produced from coal at the pilot plant scale has been
conducted in the tea plantation for drying tea leaf. It is actually
very promising technologically as well as economically, then it is
necessary to socialize more intensive to the entrepreneurs who are
interested to develop the plant at large scale of production by
guaranteeing supply of coal sufficiently.6.1 The compensation of
oil fuel subsidy elimination in the country should be given to both
the poorer and last but not least to the program of energy
substitution development of initiating its intensive utilization at
transition era of fossil fuels or coal and oil and gas to satisfy
the future national demand for energy.6.2 Outlook toward
gasification of coal
If the effort of coal liquefaction of South Sumatra coal is
cancelled due to its non-competitive price or the coal liquefaction
of the other coal areas (East Kalimantan and South Kalimantan) is
promising due to its closer location to the port or beach, then the
South Sumatra coal could be utilized through either UBC or
gasification.
In the case of gasification of South Sumatra coal, where the
large State-owned Fertilizer Company is nearby located, is possible
to carried out by using the world-wide conventional and commercial
technology, e.g. in the USA used for steam power generating plant
and producing other by-products such as sulfur, ammonia, etc.,
besides supplying gas for fertilizer industry in Indonesia.
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Enclosures
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