MFPP Process Description

1: Feedstock supply
The feedstock (the secondary fuel) is transported in a walking floor container – an automatic goods releasing container by truck.

2: Feedstock transfer
When the walking floor container is docked on site, it connects to the tube plate transport system, which is used for the first step of feedstock transfer. On the outlet end of tube plate transport system, a screw conveyor is installed to perform the second and last step of feedstock transfer to the reactor hopper.

3: Production process
As the feedstock is released from the screw conveyor to the hopper, it is transferred through a feed-in rotary valve at the bottom of the hopper, followed by the airtight dosing screw, to enter the reactor. In this specific process, the feedstock is processed at approximately 750°C-800°C under atmospheric pressure, with a dwelling time of 15-30 minutes. Two forms of the raw output products are created: one is the solid product, the other is the raw gas product.

Gas Production Process
The raw gas product will leave directly at the final top outlet of the reactor, entering a cyclone, where the remaining particles and solid products, if any, from the process are separated from the gas. Any particles and solid products are released at the bottom of the cyclone, and pass, through jacketed piping with cooling water to the clip valves, after which it enters through the second inlet of the SynCoal transport system.

Product gas leaves at the top of the cyclone, entering two condensers in series, where long chain hydrocarbons (condensables), are condensed into liquid Hydrocarbon Condensate, and the short(er) chain hydrocarbons (non-condensables), are extracted by a blower to leave the condensers as product gas.

The condensers use cold water, available in the Greenhouse, as cooling/condensing medium. In order to increase the condensation efficiency, a reflux process is used, with an Hydrocarbon Condensate/water separator and a gear pump. The pump will transfer the filtered Hydrocarbon Condensate from the duplex Hydrocarbon Condensate/water separator/filter, back to the top of the condensers, to increase the condensation efficiency. Then the product gas is transferred from production container to the utility container for the further conditioning in step 4 – Post Production.

Hydrocarbon Condensate production process
The condensables are collected in a 750 liter buffer tank, then passing through a second duplex Hydrocarbon Condensate/water separator/filter, pumped out via a second gear pump into a 1 m3 oil storage container for further utilization. A pipe connection is foreseen from the drain of Hydrocarbon Condensate buffer tank to the emergency diesel generator.

SynCoal production process
At the final bottom outlet of the spirajoule reactor, the solid product is released to enter the char cooler via a rotary valve. In the char cooler, the product is cooled via water in a jacketed screw conveyor. The char cooler uses cold water, available in the Greenhouse, as cooling medium. Water is sprayed evenly inside the char cooler to cool down the solid product to less than 50°C. The cooled solid product (SynCoal) is released from the char cooler and enters into the SynCoal transport system. The SynCoal transport system is a tube plate transport system, and collects the SynCoal from both the char cooler and the cyclone and transports it into a storage tank for further utilization.

4: Post production – Gas conditioning & monitoring
The product gas is continuously monitored and recorded with a Gas Chromatograph, which determines if the product gas is “on spec” or “off spec”. On-spec product gas is subsequently conditioned through a series of gas filters:
• Pre-filter to further remove particles, if any, from the gas
• Active Carbon filter to remove impurities, to keep the “on spec” gas composition in accordance with the specific gas specifications of the gas motor generator used by the Greenhouse
• Polishing filter, to further remove particles, if any, from the gas.

Next, the conditioned gas passes the second blower, which creates sufficient pressure for the gas motor generator downstream. The gas composition is monitored and recorded with a Gas Chromatograph, and inline gas measurements devices are installed to monitor and record levels of Chlorine, Fluorine and SO2 in a bypass over the second blower. In case the gas is “off spec”, the “on spec” pipeline is blocked by the interlocked flow control valves, and the “off spec” gas is transferred via the “off spec” pipeline to a diesel generator; the process will be halted.

5: Power generation
The conditioned product gas is used in to power the customer’s gas generator for electricity and heat generation.