LUMPS OF COAL: Finding Review Literature

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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