Possible applications

The “TIGAR®” technology facilitates the realization of de-carbonized society by promoting the utilization of biomass resources in developing countries. “TIGAR®” gasifies unutilized biomass resources and produce syngas which mainly consists of H₂. Syngas can be utilized for several kinds of application such as a substitute for fossil fuel, electricity generation and chemical feedstock and so on (see Fig. 3).

By converting unutilized resources into a high-value product, “TIGAR®” reduce a large volume of CO₂ emission and provide a new clean energy solution.

                                                              Fig. 3 The scheme of TIGAR® application

Competitive advantage

1. Reasonable plant cost with moderate operational conditions
Competitive gasification technology like entrained bed gasifier is required to operate under the condition with high temperature and high pressure, consequently, lead to high specification manufacturing cost.
On the other hand, “TIGAR®” can be operated on atmospheric pressure and relatively lower temperature and hence the gasifier plant can be built with readily available equipment.

2. High purity syngas derived from separated structure
Generally, as is the case with many other gasifiers, the heat required for the gasification process is supplied by the combustion of a part of the feedstock in the gasifier.
For this purpose, oxygen generated by an expensive Air Separation Unit (ASU) is injected into the gasifier as a gasification agent. In contrast, TIGAR® uses heated sand circulating from the combustor to derive the required heat for gasification while steam is used as a gasification agent in the gasifier (see Fig. 4).

Hence, oxygen is not necessary for the gasification reaction. Additionally, air is fed into the combustor in order to provide combustion heat. Since the combustor and gasifier are separated from each other and only heated sand circulates into the gasifier, flue gas does not mix with syngas. It is thus possible to obtain syngas with high calorific value, which is also suitable for chemical raw materials.

                                               Fig. 4 Circulation flow of bed materials (heated sand)

Performance

1. High calorific syngas with rich contents of H₂
“TIGAR®” enables gasification process with 100% of steam, thus produce hydrogen-rich syngas. (For brown coal gasification, the proportion of hydrogen in the syngas is about 50%).
In addition, since the gasifier and the combustor are separated, the syngas and the combustion exhaust gas are completely separated. Thereby, it is possible to produce syngas having a high calorific value with little mixing of nitrogen, and that has been verified in the 50TPD demonstration plant in Indonesia.

2. Reduction of CO₂
One of the main applications of syngas is to produce hydrogen which is used as chemical feedstock. Hydrogen is generally produced by fossil fuel such like natural gas.
The amount of CO2 emission of hydrogen plant of is as following;
*for producing 10,000Nm³-H2/hr
using natural gas : Approx.10 ton/hr
using biomass with TIGAR : Approx. 2ton/hr

Technical maturity / Past record of introduction

IHI Corporation started development of TIGAR® in 2004. After conducting the labo-scale experiment and the test operation in the domestic pilot plant with a coal feeding rate of 6-50 t/d, IHI demonstrated the TIGAR® 100 t/d plant in Indonesia, where low rank coals and biomass were abundant and the development of technology for their utilization was actively supported. In this project, the feasibility of its scaled-up design and biomass feedstock were successfully confirmed (see Fig. 5).

                                                      Fig. 5 Development and history of TIGAR®

In 2017, “TIGAR®” technology has completed nearly 6,000 hours of demonstration operation in Indonesia and is in a commercial ready state. Since feedback of the demonstration operation results to the commercial machine design has already been completed, it is possible to provide a commercial machine with stable technology.

                                                  Fig. 6 TIGAR® demonstration plant in Indonesia

Information on patent related to this technology

2005-41959

Name	IHI Corporation
Address	TOYOSU IHI BUILDING., 1-1, Toyosu 3-chome, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-8710, Japan
Capital	107.1 billion yen (as of March 31, 2018)
Contact person	Mr. Daichi Nakahara E-mail: nakahara9599@ihi-g.com Tel: +81-3-6204-7419
Number of employees	29,706 (as of March 31, 2018)
Date of company foundation	December 5, 1853
Type of business	Heavy industry manufacturer

                Corporate website: https://www.ihi.co.jp/en/

International operation

Number of employees for international operation		66 (as of January 2019)
Overseas       offices	City, Country	Name of Company (if applicable)
	Singapore	Singapore Office
	France	Paris Office
	Italy	Rome Office
	Algeria	Algeria Office
	Russia	Moscow Office
	Turkey	Instanbul Office
	India	New Delhi Office
	Thailand	Bangkok Office
	Vietnam	Hanoi Office
	Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur Office
	Indonesia	Jakarta Office
	China	Beijing Office
	Taiwan	Taipei Office
	Korea	Seoul Office
	United Arab Emirates	Dubai Office
		And 147-overseas subsidaries

Modality of business transaction

Partnership
IHI deliver the gasifier plant under cooperation with a local partner on plant construction, operation and maintenance.

Export of product
IHI is responsible for engineering, procurement and construction.

Schematic illustration of the technology

Press Release, March 2, 2015
https://www.ihi.co.jp/en/all_news/2014/resources_energy_environment/2015-3-02/index.html            

IHI Engineering Review, Vol. 50, No.1, 2017
https://www.ihi.co.jp/var/ezwebin_site/storage/original/application/25ca562073dd485aeee3cb0c6697ac15.pdf