DME Energy System Produced from Brown Coal Derived Gas and Renewable Hydrogen

Abstract

As an example of utilizing Australian Brown coal, a conceptual study is conducted for a system based on DME which is clean and easily transferrable fuel. CO₂ will be emitted when DME is produced from reduced gas by a gasification of Brown coal. Compared to the base case in which CO₂ is only treated by CCS, it is clarified that the amount of generated DME may be increased and the capacity of CCS can be largely reduced by introducing renewable hydrogen. Renewable hydrogen could be produced by electrolysis of water using electric power generated by wind power. This means that it will be one of the solutions in a case of utilizing coal resources when CCS is technically and socially restricted, DME is transported from Australia to Japan where DME is used for a power generation. As the result of the study, it is clarified that CO₂ emitted from a DME fired power station is the same level as that from LNG fired. Therefore, it is possible to largely reduce CO₂ emissions compared to that from the conventional coal fired ones.