NETL Files for Patent on Multi-Functional Sorbent

	NETL researcher Ranjani Siriwardane studies data related to development of sorbents invented by NETL.

Researchers at NETL invented the first multi-functional regenerable sorbent to remove hydrogen chloride and hydrogen sulfide simultaneously from coal gasification gas
streams at warm gas temperatures of 200 to
500 degrees C.

NETL has filed for a patent on the sorbent, which can be regenerated with oxygen.

Development of multi-functional sorbents to remove multiple pollutants in one step is important to minimize the number of steps involved in the clean-up process. This will contribute to decreasing the cost of the process.

Hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen chloride are major pollutants that have to be removed from the coal gasification gas streams in order to utilize the coal gas for various applications.

Chlorine and sulfur dioxide that are formed during the regeneration process can be utilized to produce a valuable liquid sulfuryl chloride. Sulfuryl chloride is used in various applications including production of pesticides and is used as a source of chlorine.

NETL Researcher Returns from Hydrates Expedition in East Sea

	NETL researcher Kelly Rose examines sedimentology samples from gas hydrate bearing cores using a petrographic microscope.

Kelly Rose of NETL recently returned from a successful, five-week methane hydrates expedition in South Korea’s East Sea, where
she served as lead sedimentologist/geologist.

The expedition explored gas hydrate bearing reservoirs up to 200 meters below the seafloor
at water depths between 1800 to 2100 meters. 

Major participants in the expedition included the Korean Gas Hydrate R&D Organization, the Korea Institute of Geology, Mining and Materials, the Korean National Oil Company, the Korean Gas Corporation, Fugro, Geotek, McGill University,
and NETL/DOE.

Coring locations were selected based on data from five Logging-While-Drilling test holes. More than 900 meters of borehole were drilled and cored at the final coring locations. Measurements were subsequently taken from the boreholes using wireline logging techniques.

In addition, at each of these sites, numerous sub-samples were taken including temperature, gas chemistry, porewater geochemistry, sedimentology, pressure core, and methane hydrate samples which were preserved in liquid nitrogen.

During the expedition, Rose examined and described more than 140 coarse fraction and smear slide sedimentology samples from hydrate and non-hydrate bearing intervals.  In addition, she described and examined approximately a dozen split core sections.  Finally, an additional 223 sedimentology sub-samples were obtained for post expedition analyses in order to help characterize the geologic/sedimentological features of these cores, their relationships to one another, the occurrence of the hydrate bearing intervals to the lithostratigraphic variations in the region, and the other datasets gathered during the expedition.

NETL Adds Important Measurement Capability

	NETL researcher Marisa Arnold prepares to analyze a sample in the laser flash apparatus recently purchased to measure the thermal diffusivity of ceramics, metals, composites, and multi-layer systems.

NETL recently added a capability to measure the thermal diffusivity of ceramics, metals, composites, and multi-layer systems between room temperature and 1100 °C by purchasing a Laser Flash Apparatus.

Knowledge of the thermophysical properties of materials is important in developing strategies to optimize the performance of materials exposed to the extreme environments and/or extreme temperatures associated with advanced fossil energy power systems.

The measurement principle is as follows: The front side of a disk-shaped sample (12.7 mm or 25.4 mm in diameter by 5 mm thick) is heated by a short laser pulse. The heat induced propagates through the sample and the temperature rise is measured as a function of time using an infrared detector. The thermal diffusivity can then be
determined using the measured signal.

Initially, the instrument will be used to evaluate the thermal diffusivity of refractory liner materials, a critical property impacting refractory service life in gasifier systems.

NETL Develops Method for Fabricating Flow Cells to Improve CO₂ Storage

	Dustin Crandall, a postdoc at NETL, describes a new stereolithography flow cell to Duane Smith, a NETL geosciences division researcher, and Goodarz Ahmadi, Dean of Engineering at Clarkson University. The flow cell was designed by NETL researchers, produced at Clarkson University,  and is used in pore-level experiments to identify key features in two-phase flow that can improve the efficiency of CO2 storage in geological brine fields. The screen monitor displays an image of the CAD (computer-aided design) model used to create the flow cell, and two more detailed images that show the small scale complexity.
	This stereolithography flow cell is used for small scale two-phase flow in porous media studies to evaluate methods of improving CO2 storage in deep brine fields. The cell was designed using a computer model developed by NETL researchers and produced using a stereolithography production apparatus at Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY.

NETL researchers have developed a new method using stereolithography to design and fabricate flow cells for laboratory studies to improve carbon dioxide storage in brine fields.

During production, a laser cures a thin layer of photo-sensitive resin on the surface of a vat of liquid resin; a moveable platform then submerges the cured layer and a new layer is cured on top of the previous one, creating a physical model from a computer generated model.

The layered fabrication of a computer generated model has enabled the production of an experimental porous medium with improved fluid resistance properties, as compared to previously studied etched cells.

With a greater understanding of the fundamental processes pertinent to two-phase flow in porous media, models suitable for reservoir-scale simulators can be developed.

A paper that describes this work has been written and submitted to the peer-reviewed journal Experiments in Fluids.