carburetted water gas operations in the australian gas light company

摘要

The gasmaking plant of the Australian Gas Light Company consists of Continuous Vertical Retort carbonis¬ing plant, Carburetted Water Gas plant and Oil Gas plant. In addition, two high calorific value gases are purchased and blended with the gases manufactured;namely, oil gas produced in a Semet-Solvay Regenera¬tive Reverse-Flow Oil Gas plant at a nearby petrochemical works and Liquefied Petroleum Gas from a refinery. The carbonising plant includes both Glover-Wecst and Woodall-Duckham installations having a total capacity of 2 000 tons per day of good gasmaking coal from the Greta Seam in Northern New South Wales.nCarburetted Water Gas of calorific value between 260 and 600 B.Th.U./c.ft. is produced in an installation of 8 Humphreys & Glasgow, two-and-a-half million cubic feet per day units and 1 nine million cubic feet per day Power Gas unit. Their operation is balanced to enable four factors to be met, namelyn(i) the demand of gas by the customer, (ii) the demand for by-products,n(iii) the continuous control of the interchangeability factor of the mixed gas,n(iv) the provision at all times of sufficient gasmaking plant to meet the production requirements in the event of the failure of purchased gases.nThe advent of increased petroleum refining operations in Australia has had its effect on the Gas Industry. To enable the optimum use to be made of this fact, the Company altered its statutory calorific value from 511.8 to 556.2 B.Th.U./c.ft. during 1951. Under these conditions the Carburetted Water Gas plant was requi¬red to be able to supply gas of this value where necessary. During 1954—55 work was conducted to increase the capacity of these plants both in calorific value and thermal capacity. In addition, the reduction in the quantity of coke made available for sale, occasioned by the increased proportion of petroleum products, re¬sulted in a trial of the effect of using a non-coking coal as fuel for Carburetted Water Gas manufacture. Both these investigations are covered in the paper.nA recent decision to erect further Carburetted Water Gas plant has resulted in the new Power-Gas unit which is now undergoing trials. It is completely automatic in its operation incorporating many new features which have been designed to enable complete control of the unit by one operator and to totally eliminate any lost time for ashing or maintenance operations. A description of this plant and its ancillaries is also included.