US Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman announced the award of US$62.4 million for 32 clean coal research projects to develop a coal-fired zero emissions power plant. It will also advance energy-related policy initiatives in energy, climate and hydrogen, including the FutureGen zero-emissions power plant.
Among the objectives of the research are:
Improved and new methods of producing pure hydrogen in coal gasification;
Hydrogen handling – safe storage of hydrogen, and on-board storage which will aid the commercialisation of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles; Improved and simplified removal of multiple pollutants in coal gasification;
Development of carbon dioxide capture technology that can be retrofit on existing coal-based powerplants;
Expansion of carbon sequestration technology to identify and accurately assess the CO2 storage capacity of geologic formations; and, Development of new alloys to advance ultra-supercritical generation with pulverized coal, an emerging newer technology that can deliver power with ultra-low emissions and ultra-high efficiency.
The projects will be managed by the DOE Office of Fossil Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and will support NETL’s Coal and Power Research and Development (R&D) program in four program areas of interest: Carbon Sequestration; Power Systems Advanced Research; Coal Fuels and Hydrogen; and Advanced Gasification. The projects total nearly US$62.4 million in government and contractor cost-shared funds, with DOE contributing approximately US$48.7 million.
The Carbon Sequestration program area supports Bush’s Global Climate Change Initiative goal of reducing greenhouse gas intensity by 18 percent over the next 10 years by developing technologies to capture, store, and in some cases use greenhouse gases. The eight projects will focus on direct and indirect carbon dioxide (CO2) capture technologies; technologies for mitigating non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions; and monitoring, verification and risk assessment for carbon sequestration options.
The overall goal of the Power Systems Advanced Research program area is to develop the scientific knowledge base for the development of revolutionary technologies and processes with substantial improvements and advances in power, environmental, and fuel systems. As part of the DOE effort to improve the Nation’s energy infrastructure ? which includes power plants, power transmission systems, and fuel production and transportation systems ? eight projects will focus on developing novel high temperature materials for in situ sensing devices, materials for ultra supercritical steam (USC) turbines, and advanced power plant simulation.
The Coal Fuels and Hydrogen program sponsors coal-based research in development of processes to produce clean liquid transportation fuels and hydrogen, more efficient processes for manufacturing carbon products and chemicals, and advanced separation processes. Twelve projects will focus on hydrogen storage, production of high hydrogen content coal-derived liquids, process intensification, advanced water-gas shift membrane reactors, advanced solvents and solid sorbents-based separation systems, advanced fuels research, and advanced solid separation technologies.
Advanced Gasification research will focus on integrated sulfur, ammonia and chloride removal and integrated multiple contaminant removal of mercury, arsenic, selenium and cadmium. Four projects have been awarded in this area.
Loading...