Abstract:
Coal is fossil fuel which is abundant reserves more than other fuel such as natural gas and petroleum. It has a steady and low price that advantage to consider for improving the fuel system in industry. This research has an objective to study on pre-feasibility of coal gasification from imported Indonesian bituminous coal (Coal) for substituting Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) which is used in ceramic industry in Lampang province. This research uses a software called ASPEN Plus to create the model for analysis moving-bed gasification process. The feed rate of coal is around 550 kilograms per hour that can produced the syngas around 5,439.20 kilograms per hour with temperature 1,185.40 Celsius degree. The comparison between LPG and syngas from coal gasification at the same heating value is introduced. It has to use coal 5.39 kilograms for produce the syngas fuel. At the spot price on April 2014, imported coal from Indonesia is around 3,000 baht per tones (including transportation cost to Lampang) while LPG price for industry production is 30.13 baht per kilogram. Thus, the cost of syngas fuel is 16.18 baht per kilogram or lowers than LPG around 1.86 times. (around 53.70%) The result is mentioned, it can save the fuel cost around 13.79 million baht per year at the rate of fuel consumption 3,000 kilograms per day. Hence the financial analyzing model has shown the outcomes of both cost and profit advantages by using coal gasification system for ceramic industry. The result reveals that the internal rate of return is 14.88% and the net present value at 8% discount rate is 9.44 million baht that can payback the investment in 5.902 years. (About 5 years 10 months, and 24 days) which had estimated overview project in 10 years Finally as the result above, using coal gasification for substituting LPG which is used in ceramic industry in Lampang province is possible.