Zero emission coal is here - now

Latrobe Fertilisers Limited

Latrobe Fertilisers Limited was incorporated in September 2012 to deploy proven coal gasification technologies to produce urea.

The coal gasification process delivers a separate stream of CO₂ which can be captured and stored.

Urea Plant

The coal will be gasified to produce a synthesis gas - a mixture of CO and H₂. The production of urea (and DAP fertiliser) first requires the production of ammonia (NH₃) and the nitrogen to do this comes from the Air Separation Unit at the front end of the flow sheet with the hydrogen coming from the shift reaction ...

(CO + H₂O → H₂ + CO₂)

Environment

The project will be subject to the normal state and federal environmental approval process. The plant will be located on an approved industrial site adjacent to a power station and mine which has several of the environmental approvals already in place.

Sustainability

Latrobe Fertilisers is committed to build the first near to zero emissions urea plant in Australia.

The project is engineered to capture its excess CO₂ not used in the urea production (see project flow sheet) and ultimately direct this to a common user geosequestration facility.  The establishment of such a facility is supported by the Victorian Government who are currently one of the sponsors of  a trial CO₂ injection project in Victoria’s Otway Basin.

Further reading -

The "Coal Can Do That" article "Coal-to-Gas is Off-the-Shelf Energy Solution" from February 2009 by Dr. Frank Clemente.

The coal industry's "War on Coal" campaign is all spin