Kemper reaches key stage in coal gasification project

Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of Southern Co., produces safe, reliable and environmentally responsible energy for over 186 000 customers in 23 southeast Mississippi counties.

Its Kemper County energy facility has two coal gasification units and is moving forward with developments to begin operation. The facility has completed the first test of one of the units, where it injected sand into the equipment under operational conditions. This is a key step before it commences injecting lignite into the gasifiers for final operational testing.

"The testing of the gasifier at Kemper is a huge step toward achieving full operation of the project in the first half of 2016," commented Ed Holland, Chairman and CEO of Mississippi Power. "This is one of the most important steps toward completion of the project. It demonstrates the first gasifier and related systems are working as designed to support the project's generating capability of producing syngas from lignite."

Once the gasifiers are operational, the gasification of locally mined Mississippi lignite will supply syngas to Kemper’s combined cycle power plant.

"By having demonstrated its reliability over the past 14 months, the combined cycle's dual-fuel design to use both syngas and natural gas should provide fuel flexibility for the benefit of customers," said Holland. "Following the completion of the testing of both gasifiers, our next step will be to inject lignite into the gasifiers and produce syngas, which is expected to occur in the first part of next year."

Edited from press release by Harleigh Hobbs

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/coal/28102015/kemper-reaches-key-stage-in-coal-gasification-project-3075/