Accelergy Partners with Yankuang for Algae Farm at Coal-to-Liquids Plant in China

October 18, 2011
AlgaeIndustryMagazine.com

ouston, TX-based Accelergy Corporation, a global leader in the production of clean, high-grade, synthetic liquid fuels, has announced a partnership with the Yankuang Group for a large-scale, low carbon, hybrid coal-to-liquids (CTL) plant. The plant is expected to produce approximately 68,000 barrels of fuel per day, and would sequester carbon with Accelergy’s TerraSync system that grows algae in the consumption of process CO2.

The facility, located in Erdos, in China’s Inner Mongolia Province, will utilize a hybrid configuration of Accelergy’s Micro-catalytic Coal Liquefaction (MCL) system and Yankuang’s proprietary Fischer Tropsch indirect liquefaction system. By incorporating Accelergy’s TerraSync® terrestrial sequestration system—a carbon capture and recycle process—the integrated project is expected to achieve a thermal efficiency in excess of 60 percent and achieve a 100 percent reduction in CO₂ emissions.

The algae farm that will be integrated with the refinery would be on the order of several thousand acres. The feasibility study and front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase of the project will be completed in 2012, and construction will begin sometime in 2013. Executives from the Yankuang Group will be visiting algae demonstration facilities in the US during the week of October 31, 2011.

Currently the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal, China’s output for coal-to-liquids is expected to jump from 1.5 million tons in 2010 to 30 million tons in 2020, according to a recent report on the global CTL market from Market Avenue. “As China’s economy continues to grow, so does the demand for high quality synthetic fuels to power its fleets. Our partnership with Yankuang will provide domestically sourced fuels with a low carbon footprint to meet this market need,” said Timothy Vail, CEO of Accelergy.