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of the keys to future, high efficiency, cleaner coal-fired power
plants is the development of hot gas filters. Most of the devices
available today to filter pollution-causing impurities from power
plant gas streams operate at relatively low temperatures. Tomorrow's
advanced power plants - those, for example, that use coal gasifiers
and advanced fluidized bed combustors - will require filtering
systems that are able to withstand much hotter gas flows and
function reliably at lower costs.
In an effort to reduce the operational costs of these future
filter systems, the Department of Energy (DOE) and West Virginia
University (WVU) will conduct experiments at the university's test
facility to better understand how hot-gas filters are cleaned. DOE
will provide $232,000 of the total $488,888 project that will
ultimately help to optimize the cleaning process.
Advanced coal-fired power generation systems such as
pressurized-fluidized bed combustion and integrated gasification
combined cycles require coal ash particles to be removed from the
gas stream at high temperatures and high pressures before entering
the gas turbine. This prevents particles from fouling or eroding
turbine blades and other equipment. While significant progress has
been made in the past several years, the way filters are cleaned is
still not well understood.
WVU's test facility allows a more direct and fundamental
understanding of the hot-gas-filter cleaning process. This
experimental test system enables researchers to perform in-situ
measurements on the filter as it is being cleaned. A special
apparatus allows ash to build-up on a filter, so measurements are
performed on a realistic ash cake, as opposed to a pressed or
reconstituted cake. Then, using a "long distance"
microscope and high-speed digital photography, researchers can
actually observe the filter as it is being cleaned. A wide range of
factors will be assessed to optimize cleaning parameters, such as
pulse pressure, pulse duration, pulse frequency, and filter-surface
characteristics.
Optimizing the cleaning system will reduce the number of cleaning
cycles and compressed gas used to clean filters, thereby lowering
costs. Information from this project can be transferred directly to
hot gas filter system developers to help them commercialize this
technology.
-End of TechLine-
For more information, contact:
Otis Mills, Jr., DOE Federal Energy Technology Center, 412/386-5890,
e-mail: mills@fetc.doe.gov
Technical contact:
Ted McMahon, DOE Federal Energy Technology Center, 304/285-4865,
e-mail tmcmah@fetc.doe.gov.
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