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Published: 2008

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Weyerhaeuser operates the world's only commercial high-temperature black liquor gasifier at its pulp mill in New Bern, NC. The unit was started-up in December 1996 and currently processes about 15% of the mill's black liquor. Weyerhaeuser, Chemrec AB (the gasifier technology developer), and the U.S. Department of Energy recognized that the long-term, continuous operation of the New Bern gasifier offered a unique opportunity to advance the state of high temperature black liquor gasification toward the commercial-scale pressurized O2-blown gasification technology needed as a foundation for the Forest Products Bio-Refinery of the future. Weyerhaeuser along with its subcontracting partners submitted a proposal in response to the 2004 joint USDOE and USDA solicitation - 'Biomass Research and Development Initiative'. The Weyerhaeuser project 'Advancement of High Temperature Black Liquor Gasification' was awarded USDOE Cooperative Agreement DE-FC26-04NT42259 in November 2004. The overall goal of the DOE sponsored project was to utilize the Chemrec{trademark} black liquor gasification facility at New Bern as a test bed for advancing the development status of molten phase black liquor gasification. In particular, project tasks were directed at improvements to process performance and reliability. The effort featured the development and validation of advanced CFD modeling tools and the application of these tools to direct burner technology modifications. The project also focused on gaining a fundamental understanding and developing practical solutions to address condensate and green liquor scaling issues, and process integration issues related to gasifier dregs and product gas scrubbing. The Project was conducted in two phases with a review point between the phases. Weyerhaeuser pulled together a team of collaborators to undertake these tasks. Chemrec AB, the technology supplier, was intimately involved in most tasks, and focused primarily on the design, specification and procurement of facility upgrades. Chemrec AB is also operating a pressurized, O2-blown gasifier pilot facility in Piteaa, Sweden. There was an exchange of knowledge with the pressurized projects including utilization of the experimental results from facilities in Piteaa, Sweden. Resources at the Georgia Tech Research Corporation (GTRC, a.k.a., the Institute of Paper Science and Technology) were employed primarily to conduct the fundamental investigations on scaling and plugging mechanisms and characterization of green liquor dregs. The project also tapped GTRC expertise in the development of the critical underlying black liquor gasification rate subroutines employed in the CFD code. The actual CFD code development and application was undertaken by Process Simulation, Ltd (PSL) and Simulent, Ltd. PSL focused on the overall integrated gasifier CFD code, while Simulent focused on modeling the black liquor nozzle and description of the black liquor spray. For nozzle development and testing Chemrec collaborated with ETC (Energy Technology Centre) in Piteae utilizing their test facility for nozzle spray investigation. GTI (Gas Technology Institute), Des Plains, IL supported the team with advanced gas analysis equipment during the gasifier test period in June 2005.