The U.S. Department of Energy has negotiated three more Clean Coal Technology (CCT) projects, bringing the program to 19 projects demonstrating economic and environmentally benign methods for burning coal.
TransAlta Resources Investment Corp., Calgary, the first non-U.S. firm to be a prime CCT sponsor, will outfit an Illinois power plant with coal burners designed to inexpensively capture pollutants blamed for acid rain.
Southern Co. Services Inc., a Birmingham, Ala., engineering firm, will test a device to remove nitrogen oxide pollutants from power plant smoke.
And Combustion Engineering Inc., Windsor, Conn., and CO Inc., Homer City, Pa., will produce a computer program to help utilities choose coal types.
TRANSALTA DEMONSTRATION
The $17.3 million TransAlta project will demonstrate a "low NOx-SOx" burner developed by engineers studying combustion in rocket engines. It will be added to a high sulfur coal burning boiler at Southern Illinois Power Cooperative's Marion, Ill., generating plant.
The 21 month project will try to reduce sulfur and nitrogen pollutants by as much as 90% at one third of the cost of installing conventional pollution control systems and one fifth of the operating costs of dual systems to reduce sulfur and nitrogen pollutants.
In the process, crushed coal and limestone are blown with air into a burner, and during combustion the limestone absorbs the sulfur in the coal. High temperatures melt the coal ash into a slag, which, along with compounds containing sulfur, drains from the bottom of the boiler. Nitrogen from the coal is converted into harmless molecular nitrogen.
DOE will provide $6.8 million for the project, TransAlta and other utilities $10.5 million, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) $1 million, and Illinois Department of Energy $3 million.
CATALYTIC REDUCTION
The $15.8 million Southern project will test the "selective catalytic reduction" technique at Gulf Power Co.'s Pensacola, Fla., plant.
The process is widely used in Europe and Japan to remove nitrogen oxide pollutants from coal burning boilers that generally use low sulfur, low ash coals.
It mixes ammonia with coal combustion gases in a chamber next to the boiler. A catalyst helps the NOx react with ammonia to form harmless molecular nitrogen and water.
The process does not work well with high sulfur coals burned in much of the eastern U.S., and the project will test possible catalysts and process changes.
DOE is providing $7.5 million for the project, EPRI $2 million, and Southern $6 million. Completion is due in mid-1994.
MINICOMPUTER PROGRAM
CQ and Combustion Engineering will develop a minicomputer program to predict the performance of coals that have been precleaned to various levels.
The program, dubbed the "Coal Quality Expert," could help power plant operators select the coal they burn to meet air quality standards and operating needs at the most economical cost.
The software will be developed from data generated by test burns on 26 coals. Six coal burning utilities will provide full scale operating data.
Programmers will use the data to develop logic questions that capture the human knowledge of coals and can draw conclusions.
When completed in 1992, the software will be tested at 10 utility sites. Versions will be developed for plant operators, design engineers, and fuel purchasers.
DOE is providing $8.7 million, other sponsors the balance.
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