Situation

The company Gouda Refractories manufactures refractory bricks. Together with the young company DOPS, they aim to reduce their natural gas consumption using a new technology. Although DOPS already has a working pilot reactor, both companies want to validate the process on an industrial scale. They approached KH Engineering for this purpose.

​Solution

The technology developed by DOPS is promising. It can extract syngas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide) and solid carbon from various residual streams, with negligible CO₂ emissions. Gouda Refractories intends to use the produced synthesis gas for climate-neutral heat in their own production process.

The DOPS process utilises thermochemical conversion technology, where only a small amount of oxygen is needed to initiate a gasification reaction process reaching very high temperatures. KH Engineering conducted a FEL 1 study to determine if this is also applicable on an industrial scale, where the CAPEX budget was a crucial part. Additionally, KH Engineering performed a plot study and designed a plot plan.

In this study, we had to develop several scenarios. The reactor operates at a very high temperature, up to 1200 degrees Celsius. Therefore, the gas must be cooled immediately, or it could damage the installation. Additionally, it is necessary to map out how the reactor’s feed is regulated, what raw materials are used and how the products are processed.

KH Engineering has established a mass balance and is now working on an energy balance, which requires extensive calculations. In a follow-up study (FEL 2), KH Engineering will specify how the equipment should be designed and whether there are further applications for all the heat, apart from heating Gouda Refractories’ production process.