GTI is a leading U.S. research, development and training organization serving energy and environmental markets, focused on increasing energy supply, improving energy delivery, and using energy more efficiently and in a cleaner manner. Yangquan, a Global Fortune 500 company, is one of the largest coal producers in China and a leader in the coal-to-chemicals industry.
GTI has worked closely with Aerojet Rocketdyne (AR), hosting the development of their compact gasifier for coal and natural gas conversion since 2009. Earlier this year, GTI successfully tested Yangquan’s coals in the pilot-scale gasifier. GTI acquired the assets of AR’s energy systems portfolio in early July when AR exited the terrestrial energy business to refocus efforts on their core aerospace business.
With this agreement, GTI and Yangquan will work toward finalizing a contract to design, build and operate a large-scale coal gasification demonstration project incorporating the advanced gasifier technology. This technology offers a step-change improvement in efficiency and cost over current gasification technology and is uniquely capable of gasifying the low-rank, high ash-fusion temperature coal that is prevalent in China, the announcement said.
David Carroll, GTI president and CEO, said, “We are addressing major coal challenges — developing new, clean uses of coal through advanced gasification technology and carbon capture and management. It is an honor to embark on this collaborative effort with Yangquan.”
Yan Wenquan, vice general manager of Yangquan, said, “We own and operate many coal gasification plants and are actively expanding our coal chemical business, seeking to enable full utilization of our resources. Working with GTI to implement an industrial demonstration of the advanced gasifier they have acquired from AR can help to drive down technology risk and expand the market for cleaner energy systems.”
