"The
distinction between the past, present and future is
only a stubbornly persistent illusion." -- Albert Einstein
The following article popped up during a recent browsing session …
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Proceedings of the Mini-Symposium “Coal
Based Fuel Cell Technology: Status, Needs and Future Applications”. Morgantown WV, October 11-12, 2007
(NMS_07_P07 31)
A Review of Coal
Syngas Cleanup Technologies, Past Trace Contaminant Testing, and Future SOFC Testing
Activities at RTI
Jason Trembly, John Albritton, and Raghubir Gupta
RTI International, Center for Energy Technology, 3040 Cornwallis Road, Research
Triangle
Park, NC 27709, Tel: (919)-541-8033, E-mail: jtrembly@rti.org
ABSTRACT
Development of integrated gasification and fuel cell (IGFC) power plants has
increased considerably over recent years due to the ability to produce
electrical power at high efficiencies while being environmentally friendly. The
development of these power generation systems is a key goal of the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE). Although the ability of solid oxide fuel cells
(SOFCs) to operate on carbon based fuels such as natural gas has previously
been reported the use of coal derived syngas as a fuel for SOFCs has only
recently been investigated. The main components of coal derived syngas are
known not to cause loss in SOFC performance; however the syngas may contain
many trace species which may be detrimental towards operation. Although it is
well known that H2S will need to be cleaned to sub-ppm concentrations the
determination of the level of cleanup which will be required for other trace
species contained in coal derived syngas has just recently commenced. A
thorough understanding of the interactions between the SOFC anode and various
species contained in coal derived syngas is required to develop coal based SOFC
systems. RTI International is a leading developer of warm gas cleanup systems
for IGCC and future IGFC power plants. This paper will review previous SOFC
trace contaminant testing which has been completed and testing methodologies
RTI is considering to develop trace contaminant clean up systems for IGFC power
systems.
Free Full Text Source: http://nift.wvu.edu/Symposium2007/papers/NMS_07_P07.pdf
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RTI International (www.rit.org) is one of the
world’s leading nonprofit research institutes, dedicated to improving the human
condition by turning knowledge into practice. Its staff of more than 3,700
provides research and technical expertise to governments and businesses in more
than 75 countries.
I found more articles describing RTI syngas research by searching Google®
Scholar using this statement …
“RTI
International” coal
The quotes tell Google® to search RTI International as a phrase. Here is one result …
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International Journal of Clean Coal and
Energy, Vol.2 No.3(2013), Article ID:36046,19 pages
DOI:10.4236/ijcce.2013.23005
Implementation
of a Demoisturization and Devolatilization Model in Multi-Phase Simulation of a
Hybrid Entrained-Flow and Fluidized Bed Mild Gasifier
Jobaidur Khan, Ting Wang
Energy Conversion & Conservation Center, University of New Orleans, New
Orleans, USA
Email: jrkhan@uno.edu, twang@uno.edu
Copyright © 2013 Jobaidur Khan, Ting Wang. This is an open access article
distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited.
ABSTRACT
A mild gasification process has been implemented to provide an alternative form
of clean coal technology called the Integrated Mild Gasification Combined Cycle
(IMGCC), which can be utilized to build a new, highly efficient, and compact
power plant or to retrofit an existing coal-fired power plant in order to
achieve lower emissions and significantly improved thermal efficiency. The core
technology of the mild gasification power plant lies on the design of a compact
and effective mild gasifier that can produce synthesis gases with high energy
volatiles through a hybrid system: utilizing the features of both
entrained-flow and fluidized bed gasifiers. To aid in the design of the mild
gasifier, a computational model has been implemented to investigate the
thermal-flow and gasification process inside this mild gasifier using the
commercial CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) solver ANSYS/FLUENT. The
Eulerian-Eulerian method is employed to model both the primary phase (air) and
the secondary phase (coal particles). However, the Eulerian-Eulerian model used
in the software does not facilitate any built-in devolatilization model. The
objective of this study is therefore to implement a devolatilization model
(along with demoisturization) and incorporate it into the existing code. The Navier-Stokes
equations and seven species transport equations are solved with three
heterogeneous (gassolid) and two homogeneous (gas-gas) global gasification
reactions. Implementation of the complete model starts from adding
demoisturization first, then devolatilization, and then adding one chemical
equation at a time until finally all reactions are included in the multiphase
flow. The result shows that the demoisturization and devolatilization models
are successfully incorporated and a large amount of volatiles are preserved as
high-energy fuels in the syngas stream without being further cracked or reacted
into lighter gases. The overall results are encouraging but require future
experimental data for verification.
Free Full Text Source: http://file.scirp.org/Html/3-2380008_36046.htm
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"Most people
work just hard enough not to get fired
and get paid just enough money not to quit."--George Carlin
Review of Control Technologies for Mercury Emissions from Coal-Fired
Power Plants offers a succinct overview of mercury control technologies and the
recently promulgated MATS-Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.
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Review
of Control Technologies for Mercury Emissions from Coal-Fired Power Plants;
Plus, The connection of human health risks to mercury air emissions from coal-fired
power plants
Larry Gray
MANE 696H01 – Air and Water Pollution Prevention and Control, Rensselaer (RPI)
Hartford, Hartford, CT, USA
October 24, 2013
Introduction
Air pollutant control devices, such as electrostatic precipitators, fabric
filers and flue gas desulfurization units, used to control NOX, SO2 and
particulate matter are effective at removing the oxidized and particulate forms
of mercury. However, the vapor form of mercury has proven to be very difficult
to remove from the flue gas and extensive research has been devoted to
developing control technologies for this form of mercury in the flue gas. The
state-of-the-art control technologies of activated carbon injection and
enhanced or chemically-treated activated carbon injection are described in the
paper as mercury specific control options. The development of mercury emission
standards and regulation are described following the control technology
section. The final section of the paper reviews the status of mercury emissions
from an old coal-fired power plant in Bridgeport, Connecticut to provide a
local perspective to the review. Dispersion modeling will be applied to show
the downstream effects from emissions control technologies, again, from a local
perspective. There has been significant progress in developing control
technologies to reduce all three forms of mercury emissions.
Free Full Text Source: http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/~grayl3/AWPPCE/Air/Project/A_Review_of_Control_Technologies%20_for_Mercury_Emissions_from_Coal-Fired_Poweplants.pdf
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The author also provides a link to a page on the EPA website …
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On December 16, 2011, the EPA finalized
the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), to reduce emissions of mercury and
other toxic air pollutants from new and existing coal- and oilfired power
plants, (www.epa.gov/mats/powerplants.html
). This is the first national standard on Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPS) to
apply to power plants.
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“A bad review
is like baking a cake with all the best ingredients and having someone sit on
it” -- Danielle Steel
Electricity Framework 5 Year Review: Control Technologies
Review is very useful for getting up to speed on a broad range
of technologies designed to minimize the impact on the environment caused by
the generation of electricity.
Here is an excerpt …
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ERG No. 3689.00.001.001
Electricity Framework 5 Year Review: Control Technologies Review
Final Report
Prepared for Clean Air Strategic Alliance
Prepared by Eastern Research Group, Morruisville, NC
January 21, 2009
This document presents the results of a determination of the Best Available
Technology Economically Achievable (BACTEA) for multiple greenfield build
electricity generating technologies for use in the Province of Alberta, Canada,
as requested by the Clean Air Strategic Alliance (CASA). Existing retrofit technologies are not
assessed in this document.
The BACTEA analysis was conducted for control technologies used to reduce the
emissons of four pollutants: nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide
(SO2), particulate matter (PM), and mercury (Hg). Additionally, the energy requirements for any
control technologies analyzed were identified, and the resulting greenhouse gas
emissions were estimated. This document
also discusses future technologies, control techniques, and the use of
alternative fuels applicable to electric generating units.
The BACTEA determination was conducted for utility boilers and combustion
turbines that are 25 megawatts (MWJ) or greater in size. The determination was also conducted for
various fuels burned.
Free Full Text Source: http://www.assembly.ab.ca/lao/library/egovdocs/2009/ca6/casa/173276.pdf
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I think of doing
a series as very hard work. But then I've talked to coal miners, and that's really
hard work. --
William Shatner
My background is in the oil and gas industry, so my focus in this blog has been
on the desulfurization of petroleum products.
However, with this post I begin to explore the desulfurization of coal and coal
products. I have to admit that I am not
a big fan of coal. But I do understand
that the industrialized world will continue to use coal for quite some time.
That being the case, the development of technologies that will minimize the
environmental impact of the coal life cycle is critical.
Since I am not familiar with clean coal research, I began by searching Google®
Scholar for review literature. I used
the following search statement:
coal desulfurization
review
Here is one of the reviews resulting from the search, along with a couple of
excerpts …
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Proceedings of the Mini-Symposium “Coal
Based Fuel Cell Technology:
Status, Needs and Future Applications”. Morgantown WV, October 11-12, 2007
NMS_07_P07 31
A Review of Coal
Syngas Cleanup Technologies, Past Trace Contaminant Testing, and Future SOFC
Testing Activities at RTI
Jason Trembly (1), John Albritton (1), and Raghubir Gupta (1)
jtrembly@rti.org
1 RTI International, Center for Energy Technology, 3040 Cornwallis Road,
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, Tel: (919)-541-8033
INTRODUCTION
Advanced IGFC power systems have become of particular interest to the U.S. DOE
over recent years due to their potential to operate at efficiencies as high as
60 percent with CO2 capture [1]. In order for a gasifier to be integrated with
an SOFC in an IGFC power plant, the syngas must be cleaned of contaminants that
could damage the SOFC stack or contribute to environmental emissions. Syngas
contaminants that need to be removed before the SOFC stack include
particulates, sulfur gases (primarily H2S and COS), ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen
chloride, alkali, and heavy metals (Hg, As, Se and Cd). Conventional gas
cleaning is typically completed by scrubbing the syngas using chemical or
physical solvents that require cooling the gas to below 100ºF (10ºC). However,
the need to cool the gas to ambient temperature requires the use of additional
equipment (heat exchangers, knockout pots, condensate handling system, etc.).
In addition, the cooling of the gas, which must ultimately be reheated before
being sent to the fuel cell, introduces a thermodynamic penalty on the overall system.
The paper briefly highlights coal based SOFC testing areas which will need to
be addressed in the near future in order to develop high temperature trace
contaminant cleanup for IGFC power systems.
Free Full Text Source: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCwQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnift.wvu.edu%2FSymposium2007%2Fpapers%2FNMS_07_P07.pdf&ei=AtWlUs2FF4nIyAHtl4GADQ&usg=AFQjCNEpwA7HojeuAN3iq9ylo_6DQ93EqA&sig2=EAhSH2zfUZ8T5tcioiYRkA&bvm=bv.57752919,d.aWc&cad=rja
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