Coal-based, Technology-generation System Integration Optimization And Evaluation Methods

The system co-producing clean energy and chemicals is one of the poly-generation processes in which many sorts of clean secondary energy and high quality chemical products can be produced at the same time based on coal conversion by means of the optimizing integration of some correlated individual technologies. The attempt research into the optimization and assessment of the integration system co-producing clean energy and chemical products based on coal conversion is a initiative exploration which has not only great theoretical but also extreme practical importance for the bringing forth new ideas and vigorous development of poly-generation technology and industry.The theoretical analysis of the integration system co-producing clean energy and chemical products based on coal conversion shows that the essence of coal conversion process is the transformation of the existing forms of carbon in coal to a certain extent, during which the value of coal can be utilized step by step, the project resources can be optimistically distributed, the utility facilities can be combined together and the whole process can finally be optimized by means of the integration of some correlated individual technologies, the suitable mergence of some segments of the same kind and the diversification of the target products, so that the efficiency of the whole system can be promoted, the investment cost of the project can be reduced, the production cost of the target products can be decreased and the economical performance cab be improved.The correlated individual technologies, which will be used during integration of systems co-producing clean energy and chemicals based on coal conversion, can be divided into coal conversion technology, downstream processing technology and auxiliary technology. The suitable and optimizing integration of some of those technologies will be very beneficial for the realization of the maximum potential of the key individual technologies so as to reach the optimization of the whole system.The optimizing integration of systems co-producing clean energy and chemicals based on coal conversion is a very complicated systems engineering. It is of great practical significance and has operational potential only when based on a specific engineering project. The procedure of optimizing integration consists of the determination of the whole framework of a particular coal chemical engineering project according to the requirements from the investor, the orientation of the principal target products in the light of market demand, the comparison and selection of coal conversion technologies based on the raw coal resources, the integration of the correlated individual technologies, the designation of the main objective functions, the list of all border and restrictive conditions, the establishment of the mathematical model and the calculation of all parameters, so as to get the optimizing integration results.The results from the optimizing integration of systems co-producing clean energy and chemicals based on coal conversion can scientifically and comprehensively be evaluated and assessed using the new proposed index system including the technical indexes such as carbon utilization efficiency (Xc), coal conversion efficiency () and energy efficiency of the whole system and the economical indexes such as the average investment cost based on the equivalent clean energy and chemical product (IC), the average production cost based on the equivalent clean energy and chemical product (PC), which take methanol as the equivalent clean energy and chemical product and the financial internal rate of return based on the total investment cost (FIRR).The three case studies show that when the indirect coal liquefaction using F-T synthesis at a higher temperature, the indirect coal liquefaction using F-T synthesis at a lower temperature, the methanol synthesis followed by the production of polypropylene as downstream product and the power generation by integrated coal gasification combined cycle (IGCC) are considered as the separated constructed...