Gasification

Gasification is a process that if properly utilized can transform the world in which we live. Comprehensive in its coverage, this second edition continues the tradition of the first by providing engineers and scientists with an up-to-date overview of commercial processes and applications relevant to today's demands. Gasification, 2nd edition is expanded and provides more detail on the integration issues for current generation, state-of-the-art Integrated Gasification Combined Cycles (IGCC); CO2 capture in the IGCC context addressing the issues of pre-investment and retrofitting as well as defining what the term "CO2 capture ready" might mean in practice; issues of plant reliability, availability and maintainability (RAM) including as evaluation of feedback from existing plants; implementation of fuel cell technology in IGCC concepts. All statistics, processes and projects, including descriptions of a number of processes not covered in the previous edition.

• Up-to-date overview of commercial processes
• Covers applications relevant to today's demands
• Addresses the issues of pre-investment and retrofitting
• Provides more detail on the integration issues for Integrated Gasification

Christopher Higman graduated in 1966 from the University of Oxford and received his M.Sc. from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. His first contact with gasification was commissioning a producer gas plant in South Africa in 1968. He jopined Lurgi in 1975 and where he spent the next 27 years, mostly involved with gasification and related technologies. He has been responsible for design, project management and start up of a number of ammonia and methanol plants based on the gasification of heavy residues. Other projects for which he was responsible include the gas production units at both the Bintulu and Mossel Bay gas-to-liquids plants and the IGCC/hydrogen production facility at Shell’s Pernis, Netherlands refinery. Before taking up a corporate management position in 1997, he was Head of Gas Technology at Lurgi Öl·Gas·Chemie GmbH.

He is the author of various papers on gasification technology and is a contributor to “Ullmann’s Encyclopaedia of Industrial Chemistry”. He has also been a visiting lecturer at the College of Petroleum and Energy Studies in Oxford. He has a number of patents in the field.

At present Mr. Higman is researching into aspects of soot management in heavy oil gasification plants at the Engler-Bunte-Institute at the University of Karlsruhe.