DISCUSSION WITH IMPERIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES, LTD. ON GASIFICATION
The I.C.I, has been active in the development in the of a three stage process for making synthesis gas from fine coal and air. They have successfully operated each of the three steps independently – namely, carbonization, oxidation, and steam gasification. They are now planning to build a larger unit and operate the complete process. No details of the process will be divulged until the patent position of I.C.I. is clarified. S.O.D. hold basic patents on the process, but I.C.I, in the course of its development, has built up a structure of important process and equipment patents.
This process is of interest to I.C.I. as a source of synthesis gas for chemicals. Such plants are comparatively small so that the use of oxygen is uneconomical because of the high capital charges per unit of output in small oxygen plants. In synthetic fuel plants, it is questionable whether any process cannot be economically adapted to the generation of synthesis gas under pressure. The size of gas plants for synthetic fuel production is such that the capital charges on the oxygen plant are a minimum and the use of oxygen appears to be economical particularly since an oxygen process operated under pressure permits substantial savings in the cost of compression.