Baodan Project Information Sheet – 29 August 2008
Golden Nest and COMPS and would like to announce the successful commissioning and operation of their Fischer Tropsch Pilot Plant of liquid fuels such as diesel and petrol at the Baodan Experimental Facility in Baoji, ShaanXi Province China. Golden Nest is a South African Company, with close links to China and throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. COMPS is the Centre of Material and Process Synthesis, based at Wits University.
The Fischer-Tropsch process is a chemical reaction in which synthesis gas (syngas), a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, is converted into a variety of products including ultra clean petrol, diesel, LPG and synthetic lubricants. The feed to the overall process could be coal, natural gas or biomass. These fuels can be used to run trucks, cars, and some aircraft engines.
The COMPS Golden Nest project was initiated in September 2004, and the construction of the plant was completed in January 2008. We have now successfully commissioned the plant. The plant is based on novel technology developed by COMPS at the University of the Witwatersrand. This novel modular technology has the potential to significantly reduce the CO2 emissions from processes that make synthetic fuel. The process also uses less water than other competing technologies. The exciting new technology also reduces the capital and operating costs of the plant. The COMPS technology can be used for syngas derived from any source including coal, natural gas, biomass, shale oil and even municipal waste.
When computers were first introduced, the first generation in general use were mainframes, while today most computing is distributed and being done with personal computers. Chemical plants have traditionally been built as mega plants (mainframes), and what we are pioneering through this pilot plant is the personal computer equivalent of a chemical plant.
This means that smaller, more efficient plants can be built to use smaller resources, such as municipal waste sites, and avoid concentrated sources of pollution and the energy losses inherent in large distribution networks for the products to the consumers.
As South Africa, we have benefited enormously from this project by the involvement of our team of consultants and chemical engineering postgraduates. This project has allowed these bright young people of all races an opportunity to be directly exposed to world class engineer practices and methodologies. It is an international recognition of Wits and South Africa’s expertise that such a high value, world leading project is being undertaken in China. Based on the results, there have been numerous requests for the implementation of this technology internationally.
It is also of interest to note that, of the black and other consultants and postgraduates involved in the project, many of them had never had the opportunity to travel overseas, let alone to China before. The culture shock for them as well as for the local Chinese who never seen a black person before was enormous. Many of these students are available today for interviews.
This project has also been supported through the generous co funding of the NRF and DTI’s THRIP programme.
Pilot plant pictures:
COMPS FT team
Reactors on the frame
COMPS team and the plant operators
Plant and the garden
FT section
