GENG4410

Fossil to Future: The Transition

Coal

Dr. Bruce Norris Dr. Brendan Graham

Reminder

• Assignment 1 due Wednesday 13th at 11:59 pm

• Upload via LMS
What is Coal

• Coal is a combustible rock

• Major Constituent – Carbon
– Minor constituents – hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur,
nitrogen, metals
• Formed from dead plant matter
– Decays into peat
– Heat and pressure and time turn peat into coal
 Types of Coal

• Peat - precursor
Coal rank or quality

• Brown Coal - lignite

• Black Coal - bituminous
• Anthracite – hard glossy coal
• Graphite – not used for fuel
Brown Coal - Lignite

• Yellow to Brown in colour

• Woody appearance
• 60-70% carbon
• High inherent moisture (water in pores)
• High ash content (upto 20%)
• Low energy content (10 – 20 MJ/kg)
– Victoria brown coal – 8.4 MJ/kg
Brown Coal

• Due to high moisture content and low energy

density it is not traded or transported large
distances
• Often burned in power stations near coal fields
– Victoria only brown coal used in Australia
• Large deposits
– Germany, China, Russia, USA
Brown Coal

• Least mature coal

• Least exposed to heat and pressure
• Majority produced from strip mining
– Usually in bands meters to 10s meters thick
– Many associated environmental issues
Black Coal

• Black in colour
• Soft and dense
• 70-85% carbon
• Low inherent moisture (water in pores)
• Low ash content (<10%)
• High energy content (25 – 35 MJ/kg)
Black Coal

• Due to low moisture content and high energy

density it is traded or transported large distances
including intercontinental by ship
• Either burned in power stations or used for steel
production – see later
• Large deposits
– USA, Europe, Russia, Australia
Black Coal

• Can occur in bands 100s of meters thick Australian Resources

• Mined either open cut or underground

– Most open cut in Australia due to being close to
surface (80%)
– Worldwide 40% open cut, 60 % Underground mined
Anthracite

• Shiny Black
• Very Hard
• > 90% carbon
• Low inherent moisture (water in pores)
• Low ash content, burns smokeless
• High energy content (25 – 33 MJ/kg)
Western Australia Coal

• Mined open cut near Collie

– (160 km SE Perth)
• Black Coal
– Low Ash (4-7%)
– 0.6% Sulphur
– No associated methane
– 25% moisture
Energy Density
Substance Energy MJ/kg CO2 Emissions CO2 Emissions
kg/kg MJ/kg
Natural Gas 51.6 2.7 19.1
Crude Oil 43.6 3.1 14.1
Brown Coal 21 1.8 11.7
Black Coal 33 2.9 11.3
Ethanol 27.3 1.9 14.3

Calorific value of coal (kJ/kg)

𝑄 = 337𝐶 + 1442(𝐻 − 𝑂/8) + 93𝑆
C,H,O,S = mass percent in the coal
 Worldwide Reserves of Coal

https://future-economics.com/2016/05/26/complacency-over-coals-collapse-five-
factors-to-consider/
Worldwide Recoverable Coal
Coal in Australia
Uses for Coal

Other
13 %
Industry
8%
Cement 4 %
7% Electricity
Steel 68 %
Thermal vs Coking Coal

• Thermal coal is burnt to produce heat

– Mostly used in electricity generation
• Coking coal is low ash, low sulphur, porous black
coal
• Coking coal is baked in airless kilns around 1100ºC
to produce coke.
• Coke is used to produce smelt Iron

2𝐹𝑒2 𝑂3 + 3𝐶 → 4𝐹𝑒 + 3𝐶𝑂2

Worldwide Production of Coal
Australian Coal Production and Exports

Reserve Bank of Australia

Coal Exports by Country

Reserve Bank of Australia

Australian Coal Exports

Reserve Bank of Australia

Coal Fired Electricity Generation
Rankine Cycle

• Ideal thermodynamic cycle of a heat engine

– Converts heat into work while undergoing phase
change
• No friction loss
• Describes steam powered heat engines
– Coal, oil, gas fired, nuclear, CSP power stations
• As per Carnot cycle, the higher the temperature
difference between the heat and cold source the
more power can be extracted.
Rankine Cycle

• Use high heat of vapourisation fluid

V
L L+V

Compression and expansion are isentropic – no change in

entropy – frictionless and no heat or mass transfer
• Process 1–2: The working fluid is pumped from low to high pressure.
As the fluid is a liquid at this stage, the pump requires little input
energy.
• Process 2–3: The high-pressure liquid enters a boiler, where it is
heated at constant pressure by an external heat source to become a
dry saturated vapour.
• Process 3–4: The dry saturated vapour expands through a turbine,
generating power. This decreases the temperature and pressure of
the vapour, and some condensation may occur.
• Process 4–1: The wet vapour then enters a condenser, where it is
condensed at a constant pressure to become a saturated liquid.
Efficiency

• Limited by heat of vapourisation of working fluid

• Entry temperatures typical 560°C, exit 30°C
𝑇𝑐
𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝜂 = 1 − = 63%
𝑇ℎ
• Real efficiency ≈ 42%
• Efficiency lost
– Friction of Fluid flow
– Friction between droplets themselves and turbine blades
– Heat loss to surrounds
Question?

• Why not go to higher temperature?

• Requires higher pressures

• Thicker walled tubing
• Higher cost
• Lower heat transfer
Question

• For 500MW black coal plant (Muja at Collie) , how

much coal used per year?
• How much CO2 is produced per year?
 Solution
500,000,000𝐽
500𝑀𝑊 = 𝑥 3600 𝑥 24 𝑥 365 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟
𝑠
=15,800,000,000,000,000 J/year

Black coal = 33,000,000J/kg

15,800,000,000,000,000 𝐽/𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟
= 480,000,000 kg/yr
33,000,000𝐽/𝑘𝑔

480,000 𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑒
= 𝑥 0.46 𝑒𝑓𝑓 = 1,040,000 𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑎𝑙/𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟
𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟
𝐶𝑂2
@2.9 𝑘𝑔 = 3 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝐶𝑂2 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟
𝑘𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑎𝑙
Collie produces around 5 million tonnes of coal annually
Australia Wide

• 160 TWh electricity produced annually from coal

fired generators
• Assuming same conditions
– 33 million tonnes coal burnt annually
– 100 million tonnes CO2 produced annually

– 4 tonnes CO2 annually per capita just from coal

How to Improve Efficiency?

• Superheat the steam

• Keep the same pressure but raise the
temperature into supercritical region
• Achieve greater temp difference – higher efficiency
• Depressurisation is in gas phase
– No droplets to cause friction/damage turbines
Reheat and Regenerative
Efficiency

• Pre-dry coal
– Water in coal requires energy to heat up
• Pulverise coal
– Greater surface area, less water trapped, complete
rapid combustion – temps. upto 1800K
• Ultra-supercritical power plants
– Upto 47.5% efficiency – high cost material due to
pressures required (330 bar)
Worldwide Efficiency

• Japan – average 41.6%

• China – average 38.6%
– New plants 47.8%
• EU – 38%
– New plant 47%
• USA – 37.4%
– New plant 42%
• 1900’s power plant – 1% efficiency
Geo-sequestration
• Look at that in more detail later
• Only two coal fired plants in the world have CO2
recovery
• Texas used CO2 for Oil EOR – loss making
Retrofitted
• Canada used for EOR – loss making (and small
plant)
• Mississippi – new plant – most expensive in the
world per output $13,000/MW – now runs on gas.
– Retrofit additional $4,100/MW
• Average Coal Power capital cost $4000/MW
Dispatchable Power

• Baseload Power
– Large centralised generation that is slow to alter
capacity, minimum generation levels
– Coal fired, Nuclear, Some Gas fired
• Dispatchable Power
– Power supplied on demand
– Battery, hydro, gas turbine
• Reliable power is a mix of both
Lifecycle of a Coal Fired Power Plant

• Inputs
– Coal, water
• Outputs
– CO2, SOX, NOX, Particulates, Ash
• Impact
– Coal mine, mining deaths, pollution deaths
Land Impact

• Strip /open cut mining destroys immediate land

– Remediation never recovers to original state
• Ground water/river pollution
• Dust generation
• Infrastructure impact
– Roads/Rail/Ports
Water Impact

• Used in coal mining and the power station cooling

• Coal mining
– Used for dust stabilisation, washing of impurities etc
– Australia used 136GL for coal mining in 2015-16
• Power stations
– Approx. 17GL per 1000MW capacity annually
– Similar to 50,000 homes annual capacity
– Victoria’s power stations use equivalent 1/3
Melbourne’s water use
Water Impact

• Assume 50% coal mined is thermal coal

– 70GL annually for coal mining
• Australia has 25,000MW of coal fired power
– 425 GL used for power stations
• Total of 500GL used for coal fired power annually
– All Australian households use about that 1,800GL/year
Air Impact

• Carbon Dioxide
• Methane – see later
• SOx
• NOx
• Heavy metals / mercury etc
• Particulates
Air Impact

• Muja 500MW example

– 250 m3 emissions per GJ fuel
– 400,000,000 m3 gas emissions/year
• SOx @ 15 mg/m3 = 60 tonnes /year after scrubbing
• NOx @ 600 mg/m3 = 2400 tonnes/year after scrubbing
• Particulates (10 and 2.5 um) @ 15 mg/m3 = 60 tonnes/yr
• Multiply by 33 for Australia
• Multiply by 2,400 for World
Solid Waste from Coal Fired Power

• Fly Ash and Bottom Ash

– Residues from burning coal
• Fly ash leaves with flue gasses
– Collected with electrostatic collectors
• Bottom Ash
– Left in boilers
Coal Ash

• Contains silicon dioxide, aluminium oxide and

calcium oxide
• May also contain As, Be, B, Cd, Cr, hex-Cr, Co, Pb,
Mn, Hg (upto 1ppm), Mo, Sb, Sr, Tl, V.
– These may leach into ground water
• USA produces 38 million tonnes per annum
– 24 million tonnes recycled into cement
• Ash disposed in landfill either wet or dry
Human Impact

• Deaths from mining and pollution

• Coal mining kills 100s to 1000s per year
– 6 in Australia in 2019
• Coal particulates cause 1,000,000 deaths annually
– World Health Organisation
• Not including any global warming impacted deaths
USA Coal Mining Fatalities

USA Mining Health and Safety Association

China Coal Mining Deaths

China Labour Bulletin

Approximate Deaths per PWh Generated

100,000
36,000
4,000
1,400*
440
150 90#

*Due to one off dam collapse #Includes Chernobyl and Fukushima deaths

Source: International Mining Investment Conference 2018

Clean Coal

• Vast reserves of Coal worldwide

• High energy content
• Cheap access to energy
How to make Coal “Low Carbon”

Clean Coal
Coal Bed Methane

• Coal Bed Methane (CBM)

• Coal Bed Gas (CBG)
• Coal Seam Gas (CSG)
• Coal Mine Methane (CMM)

• Natural gas (methane ) extracted from coal seams

Coal Physical Structure

• Coal is naturally fractured

• Methane adsorbed to surface of coal particles
• Adsorbed a “liquid” phase on surface of coal pores
• Cleats filled with free gas or water
• CBM contains very little condensate (C3+)
• Contains a few percent CO2

• Porosity 0.1 – 10%

Production

• Typically 100 – 800 scf gas per ton coal

• Almost all is adsorbed gas
Production

• Wells bored into coal formation

• Natural pressure drives water and gas to surface
• Releases pressure on adsorbed gas so more
produced
• Water pumped out of coal bed.
– Pressure , Production
Coal Seam Gas Content East Coast Australia
Production Issues

• Produced water declines during production

– Opposite to traditional production techniques
• As pressure decreases
– pores decrease restricting flow
– Coal shrinks increasing cleat size
Production Issues

• Produces vast amounts of water

– Usually high quality with little contamination
– Used for irrigation/industry or sent to evaporation pits
• Reduction in water table over large area
– 50,000,000,000 L/year in Queensland
– 1,700,000,000,000 L over life of CSG in Queensland
– 97% desalinated
– 59% for agriculture
– 3% remains as brine
• Hydraulic Fracturing
– 30-40% of CSG in Australia
Hybrid Coal - BioFuel
Lignite and Biomass Pyrolysis Plant

• Uses Lignite (Victoria) and Biomass (Wood waste)

– Dries Lignite in novel low energy way
• Large scale Pyrolysis with Catalysed Hydrogen production
• Main products Hydrogen Gas and BioChar
 Domestic
Hydrogen
and Export

Hydrogen Domestic
Recycled Formi
Carrier and Export
Heat c Acid
Application
s

Zero National
Lignite Drying Hydrogen Syngas Gas Energy
Emissio
Refinery Turbine Market
n
Electricit
y

Waste Char Agricultural Soil Health

Biomass Char

Smokeless
Carbon Fuels
Battery Tech
Products Metallurgy
 Exhaust to
Atmosphere

Lignite Biomass
200kt – 50kt-
300kt 150kt
Heat Gas Electricity
Recovery Turbine 200MW

Drying
170kt out
Steam

Hydrogen
PSA Unit 1.5kt

Steam
Pyro Air Sulphur Methane
Kilns Removal Reformin
g

Syngas
Water Formic Formic
Sulphur Acid Acid
Gas Shift
Char Recovery Synthesis 5kt
Reactor
85kt
Net Zero Emissions Hydrogen Refinery
Project

• Budget • Feedstocks
– 230 million – 50-150 kt waste Biomass
• Kick-off – 200-300 kt Lignite
• Outputs
– April 2022
• Construction – 1.5kt H2
– 5kt Formic Acid (LOHC)
– Jan 2023 – Jun 2024 – 20 MW electricity
• Commissioning – 85kt AgChar
– Jul 2024 – Dec 2024
• Operation • Net Negative CO2
– 2025 - – At min biomass input
– Higher Biomass rate
increases carbon
negativity
Net Zero Emissions Hydrogen Refinery
Project

• 4-5 times value use of resource

• Current Use
– Dig, burn, electricity
– 70MT lignite➔ $3.5 billion wholesale
– With carbon emission exposure ➔ $700 million – $2.3 billion

• H2 Refinery
– 70 MT lignite ➔ 250 kt H2, 12,000 kt Char, 25,000,000 MWh electricity, 500 kt
advanced carbons
– $8.5-13 Billion
– 3.7 (zero CO2 exposure) to 12 times value of coal fired electricity
Coal + CCS with Oxygen

• Coal burnt in air produces dilute CO2 in flue gas

• Coal burned in oxygen produces concentrated CO2 flue gas –
easier to remove through amine absorption
• Oxy-fuel with CCS around 30% efficiency
– Compared to 40-50% for Coal Fired power with no CCS
Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle

• Use coal and steam to produce CO and hydrogen

• CO and hydrogen burned in turbine and Rankin cycle to
produce electricity
• If IGCC fed with oxygen – produces highly concentrated CO2
stream – use amine capture
• IGCC plants with 48% efficiency
• IGCC with oxy and post combustion CCS 30% efficiency
Pre-Capture IGCC

• Use coal and steam to produce CO and hydrogen

• CO and steam produce CO2 and hydrogen
• Separate the CO2
• Burn the hydrogen in turbine and Rankin cycle to produce
electricity
• If IGCC fed with oxygen – produces highly concentrated CO2
stream – amine capture
• IGCC plants with 48% efficiency
• IGCC with oxy and pre-combustion CCS 37% efficiency
IGCC Pre-Capture
IGCC

• Advantages
– Use coal deposits
– High efficiency
• Disadvantages
– High capital costs
– Still mine coal with all associated issues
Underground Coal Gasification

• Convert coal to useful gas in situ underground

• Drill vertical production well and horizontal injection
well
• Ignite coal near production well
• Inject oxygen (air) and steam in injection well
• Oxygen and steam react with carbon at temperature
to produce a synthetic gas (Syngas)
Two Well Process
Three Well Process
Reactions

Pyrolysis
Coal + Heat  Char + Ash + CH 4 + H 2 + H 2 O + CO + CO2
Gasification
C + H 2 O → H 2 + CO
Water Gas Shift
CO + H 2 O → H 2 + CO2
Methanation
CO + 3H 2 → CH 4 + H 2 O
Hydrogenating Methanation
C + 2H 2 → CH 4
UCG Issues

• Gas produced has lower energy density and lower quality

– Can not be inserted into domestic supply
– Piped directly to power plant, chemical plant, GTL plant
• Allows low quality coal deposits to produce energy
• May cause subsidence issues
• May contaminate underground water supplies

• More than 60 Projects in development worldwide

 Carbon Capture, Storage and Utilisation
Carbon Capture
• Removal of CO2 from:
• production streams – natural gas with CO2 present
• process streams – industrial processes with waste CO2 (steam methane
reforming)
• Air – direct air capture, very expensive, very inefficient, may eventually be
required
Carbon Storage
• Taking captured CO2 and putting it somewhere:
• Injection to operating oil fields – enhanced oil recovery (well understood)
• Injection to operating gas fields – enhanced gas recovery (relatively new)
• Injection to depleted reservoirs – (relatively new)
• Mineralisation / ocean storage – in early development
Carbon Utilisation
• Doing something useful with the CO2 to make money
• Industrial processing – fertilizer, ammonia, glycol plants (small relative to
amount of CO2 generated)
 Managing Climate Impacts
• Emit less and/or capture what you emit
• Both will be necessary

IEA (2022) - STEPS: current policies; APS: announced policies; NZE: hypothetical net zero path
CCUS Scale Future
Requirement

Bui et al. (2018) 40 Mt

0.02 Mt
7600 Mt
Current DAC Current
Sequestration
IEA 2022

DAC projected to grow to

60 Mtpa by 2030
IEA 2022
Req. annual
2022 2050
15-20% growth
Current Technical Status

Bui et al.
(2018)
Carbon
Capture
and
Storage:
The Way
Forward
Geo-sequestration Process
Where Can We Capture CO2?
Not all sources are created equal
- Driven by concentration difference
- Lots of CO2 molecules → easier, less expensive to
separate

- Industrial processes with CO2 outlet (SMR, ATR etc)

- 20+% CO2
~ 20-30$/ton
- Post combustion from power / heat generation
- 5-15% CO2

~ 250-600$/ton
- Direct air capture from atmosphere
- 420 ppm CO2
Amine Absorbers: Most Mature Technology
- Gas stripped of CO2 in absorber

- CO2 stripped from solvent in desorber

- 95+% purity CO2 outlet

- Typical solvent: monoethanolamine

- Regeneration requires a lot of heat,

operated at ~ 150°C

- High throughput possible

 Adsorption: Demonstration Stage

- Gas passed through columns

- CO2 preferentially adsorbed

- Adsorbent saturates, must be

regenerated

- Significant research on new

adsorbents for selectivity

- Process design determines

recovery (95+% achievable)
Temperature Swing
Pressure Swing - Throughput scaleup possible Adsorption
Adsorption

Zanco et al. (2021)

 Membranes: Post-Combustion
- Gas flow split between
multiple membrane units

- Requires scale out not

scale up

- Low cost per unit

possible

- Ongoing research for

membranes with good Zanco et al. (2021), Post-
selectivity combustion CO2 Capture

- Requires drying before

units
 Transport: Two Accepted Methods
- Pipelines
- Short or long distance (up to 1500
km)
- Existing gas infrastructure may be
repurposed
- Possible integrated industrial
centres

- Shipping
- Used if there are no pipelines
- Useful for long distance transport
- Bulk transport from industry to
storage
London Protocol made CO2
shipping illegal* *2009 amendment now fixes this
 Composition and Phase Problems
Liquids are easier than gases to transport
- Liquids have higher density,
more efficient volumetric
transport
- CO2 preferably transported in
supercritical or dense phase
- Requires compression, costs
energy
- Need to dry gas: why?
- N2, O2, Ar contaminants create Critical properties of pure CO2:
narrow phase envelope Pc = 73 atm
Tc = 31°C
Storage / Reinjection

• Various geological structures used for storage

– Depleted reservoirs
– Un-minable coal seams (enhanced coal bed methane)
– Saline aquifers
• Require caprock to stop escape into atmosphere
• Require compartmentalised reservoirs
– Gas can not be mobile
– Cant access other reservoirs/aquifers

• Enhanced Oil Recovery

• Currently ~15 sites injecting > 1 Mt/yr

CCS

national-carbon-mapping-infrastructure-plan-australia.pdf
Methods of Storage - Reservoirs

• Initial trapping in pores of the rock

• Secondary trapping by dissolution
• Tertiary trapping by cementation with rock minerals
Geo-sequestration – Worldwide Potential

• Potential storage of carbon dioxide

• Oil/gas reservoirs
– 650-900 GT
• Coal Seams
– 15-200 GT
• Saline Formations
– 1,000-10,000 GT

• Annual CO2 Production

– 37GT
Gas & Oil Reservoirs - Australia

national-carbon-mapping-infrastructure-plan-australia.pdf
Aquifer Storage (4% efficiency)

P90 P50 P10

• East Coast Storage
– 4% efficiency
– 90 GT = 450 years
• West Coast Storage
– 4% efficiency
– 112GT = 1100 years
Costs of Geo-Sequestration
Pulverised Coal Gas Combined Cycle
Energy Penalty 15 - 28% 15 - 16%
Efficiency Penalty 8 - 15% 6 - 11%

• Energy Penalty
– Percentage of energy generated required in capturing CO2
• Efficiency Penalty
– Percentage removed from the overall thermal efficiency of the
process

USC Coal with Gas Combined Cycle

CCS with CCS
Overall Efficiency 33-40% 53-58 %
Costs of Geo-Sequestration
Cost USD(2015)/tCO2
Min Max
Capture 20 110
Transport 1.3 15
Storage 1.6 31.4
Total 22.9 156.4

Additional Cost per KWh

g CO2/kWh $ per kWh min $ per kWh max

Coal Fired 1,000 0.03 0.20

Oil Fired 800 0.025 0.16
Gas Fired 500 0.015 0.10
Sales price WA 27.6 c/kWh
Budinis et al. Energy Strategy Reviews 22(2018) 61-81
Q&A

• Any questions so far?