Oil‐based gas washing—Flexible tar removal for high‐efficient production of clean heat and power as well as sustainable fuels and chemicals

The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) and Dahlman Industrial Group have developed a flexible tar removal process. This oil‐based gas washing process, OLGA, besides tars, also removes dust as well as contaminants like thiophenes and dioxins from the product gas of a (biomass) gasifier. At ECN, the OLGA technology is currently applied within the Substitute Natural Gas (SNG) production process based on indirect gasification. As OLGA removes tars, but not the valuable lighter hydrocarbons like methane (CH4), acetylene (C2H2), and ethylene (C2H4), it plays a crucial role in high‐efficient SNG production processes. The OLGA in the past has been demonstrated successfully upstream Fischer‐Tropsch diesel (FT) synthesis and in Combined Heat and Power (CHP) line ups as well though, where in the latter case besides the crucial tar removal it showed also to remove dioxins present in the product gas. As such, OLGA plays a crucial role in the production of clean heat and power.