Syngas Europa

This article highlights that the European Commission is supporting a wide range of clean coal technology research and development initiatives, including those known as APAS (Activité de Promotion, d'Accompagnement et de Suivi) and Joule (after the 19th-century British physicist James Joule). APAS, a two-year multiple-partner program, was set up to evaluate gasification processes using biomass, sewage sludge, and other wastes as co-feedstocks with coal. The Joule 3 co-gasification initiative was designed to aid European industry to address the technical issues for fluidized bed co-gasification applications. The Joule 2 project for the enhancement of the efficiency of coal-fired power generation systems was undertaken by Siemens and the University of Essen in Germany, and Babcock and Wilcox Espanola in Spain. In the Joule 3 project on advanced cycle technologies, the University of Essen and four partners have investigated measures to reduce costs, enhance efficiency, and provide a basis for an advanced design. The studies also included co-gasification of coal and biomass in an entrained-flow gasifier suitable for IGCCs.