Brayton Point Pilot

GreatPoint Energy is following in the footsteps of the petroleum refining industry by implementing a more advanced and lower cost process for refining carbon-based feedstocks. In the early days of petroleum production, oil refineries - like today’s coal gasifiers - relied on intense heat (called thermal cracking) to break down heavy crude oil into light useable petroleum products. In the 1940's however, scientists discovered that a catalyst could be used to minimize the amount of heat required. This lower cost and higher efficiency approach quickly replaced thermal cracking in oil refineries around the world.

GreatPoint Energy’s technology uses the same basic technique to “refine” coal by employing a novel catalyst to “crack” the carbon bonds and transform the coal into clean burning methane (natural gas). This single stage process is called catalytic coal methanation and forms the basis of the GreatPoint Energy bluegas™ process.

By adding a catalyst to the coal gasification system, GreatPoint Energy is able to reduce the operating temperature in the gasifier, while directly promoting the reactions that yield methane, CH₄. Under these mild “catalytic” conditions, less expensive reactor components are required, pipeline grade methane is produced, and very low cost carbon sources (such as lignites, sub-bituminous coals, tar sands, petroleum coke and petroleum resid) can be used as feedstocks.

In addition, GreatPoint Energy’s catalytic coal methanation process eliminates troublesome ash removal and slagging problems; reduces maintenance requirements; increases thermal efficiency; and eliminates the air separation plant (a system which alone accounts for 20 percent of the capital cost of most gasification systems).