Release Date: August 3, 2000

The U.S. Department of Energy today added more of the technological "building blocks" to its Vision 21 program - an effort the agency expects to lead to a nearly pollution-free energy plant by the next decade.

It's not your father's power plant.   The Vision 21 pollution-free energy plant may look significantly different than a traditional power plant - as this artist's concept shows.

"We are building the foundation for a new generation of energy facilities capable of efficiently using our most abundant traditional fuels while virtually eliminating environmental concerns," said Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson. "Vision 21 represents the future of clean energy, and these projects will help us get there faster."

Richardson announced the selection of seven new projects. Each will add a key engineering or computational component to the portfolio of technologies the department ultimately expects will converge into the Vision 21 concept. The projects join six others chosen last March (see Fossil Energy Techline, March 7, 2000).

Vision 21 is a new approach to energy production. The futuristic concept envisions a suite of highly-advanced technology modules that can be customized to meet different energy markets.

Vision 21 plants could process a wide range of fuels - coal, natural gas, biomass, municipal waste or perhaps mixtures of these fuels - and generate multiple energy products, such as electricity, fuels and chemicals. The "multi-fuel, multi-product" capability is a significant departure from today's energy plants that typically use a single fuel and produce a single product.

Also, by incorporating the latest technological improvements, the department hopes to make Vision 21 plants nearly emission free. Wastes would be either recycled or turned into products such as fertilizer or commercial chemicals.

Four of the new projects will focus on technologies crucial to the Vision 21 technical basis:

• Huntington Alloys, Huntington, WV, will develop stronger, heat- and corrosion-resistant alloys for Vision 21 heat exchangers. Durable, high-performance heat exchangers will be necessary to boost fuel-to-energy conversion efficiencies and reduce maintenance requirements and costs of Vision 21 plants. Proposed DOE award: $2.38 million; private sector cost-share: approx. $600,000.

• Foster Wheeler Development Corp., Livingston, NJ, will design and test a key module that will be capable of fully gasifying some fuels or operating as a partial gasifier to produce a char for advanced combustion processes. This capability will give engineers the flexibility to tailor a Vision 21 plant to process a wide variety of different fuels. Proposed DOE award: $2.29 million; private cost share: approx. $570,000.

• ITN Energy Systems, Wheat Ridge, CO, will develop a novel ceramic membrane to separate hydrogen from fossil fuel gas streams. Hydrogen can be used as the energy source for a fuel cell, or in gas turbines, or to upgrade the quality of liquid fuels and chemicals. Proposed DOE award: $2.33 million; private cost share: approx. $585,000.

• GE Energy and Environmental Research Corp., Irvine, CA, will develop an advanced gasification-combustion concept that simultaneously produces separate streams of (1) fuel-grade hydrogen, (2) concentrated carbon dioxide that would be ready for disposal, and (3) high-temperature, high-pressure oxygen-depleted air to generate electricity in a gas turbine. Proposed DOE award: $2.5 million; private cost share: approx. $880,000.

The other three projects will focus on advanced plant design and visualization software:

• Reaction Engineering International, Salt Lake City, UT, will develop a computational "virtual workbench" that can be used by a non-specialist to simulate the performance of Vision 21 energy plant boilers, advanced combustors, gasifiers, and fuel cells. Proposed DOE award: $1.49 million; private cost share: approx. $375,000.

• CFD Research Corporation, Hunstsville, AL, will develop an advanced computational tool to design low emission combustion systems for gas turbines. Using a computer to simulate the fluctuations that often occur when gaseous fuels are combusted can lessen the need for expensive experimental tests and lead to innovative concepts for reducing emissions. Proposed DOE award: $1.49 million; private cost share: approx. $860,000.

• Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, will develop computer simulation software that can model the pneumatic flow of microscopic solid particles and predict the interactions - such as friction - that can occur between them. The computational tools will give engineers the capability to simulate the transport of coal particles and model their behavior in advanced fluidized bed combustors. Proposed DOE award: $430,117, private cost share: approx. $115,000.

The Energy Department plans to select another round of proposals in the next eight months to complete the initial set of Vision 21 projects. Developers have until the end of September to submit proposals.

Area of Interest - Enabling and Supporting Technologies

• Development of ODS Heat Exchanger Tubing, Huntington Alloys, Huntington, WV, with Foster Wheeler Development Corp., Livingston, NJ; Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN; University of California at San Diego, San Diego, CA; Michigan Technological University; Houghton, MI; and the Edison Welding Institute, Columbus, OH

Technical Contact: Mark A. Harper, Huntington Alloys (304) 526-5057

Huntington Alloys proposes developing heat exchanger tubing made of oxide dispersion strengthened alloys (ODS) with enough circumferential creep strength - lacking in commercial ODS tubing - for long term use as heat exchanger tubing in very high temperatures. The proposers also plan to produce adequate connecting joints for the tubing, establish bending strain limits, establish high temperature corrosion limits and generate data for heat exchanger designers to use. This novel and extensive program will consist of a team effort between one material-producing company, one boiler manufacturing company, one national laboratory, two universities, and one non-profit welding research organization. The successful outcome of this project will result in innovative developments that allow the reliable use of ODS alloys for heat exchanger tubing, as well as a variety of applications previously not possible with metallic materials.

• Development of Pressurized Circulating Fluidized Bed Partial Gasification Module, Foster Wheeler Development Corporation, Livingston, NJ, with Nexant, San Francisco, CA; Praxair, Danbury, CT; Reaction Engineering International, Salt Lake City, UT; Corning, Elmira, NY; and ADA Technology, Livermore, CA

  Technical Contact: Archie Robertson, Foster Wheeler Development Corp. (973) 535-2328

  Foster Wheeler proposes developing a pressurized circulating fluidized bed partial gasification module (PGM). The proposers advocate using the partial gasification module because it offers all the advantages of gasifying fossil fuels, while providing significant fuel flexibility and the ability to accommodate the most advanced steam turbines and gas turbines. Its performance in achieving overall efficiency goals will not be affected by the carbon conversion achieved in the PGM. For certain fuels (e.g., biomass and other low-rank fuels), PGM will simply operate as a full gasifier; whereas for other fuels, the char generated in the PGM will be combusted in high efficiency advanced combustion modules. PGM-based Vision 21 plants would be able to generate electric power from coal at thermal efficiencies over 60% and meet all the stringent environmental requirements. Such a plant could be used to co-produce liquid fuels or chemical byproducts, or it could also use oxygen-firing to render the plant suitable for easy CO₂ sequestration.

• Novel Composite Membranes for Hydrogen Separation in Gasification Processes in Vision 21 Energy Plants, ITN Energy Systems, Inc., Wheat Ridge, CO, with Idaho National Engineering Environmental Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID; Nexant, San Francisco, CA; Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL; and Praxair, Inc., Danbury, CT

  Technical Contact: Michael Schwartz, ITN Energy Systems, Inc. (303) 285-5118

  ITN Energy Systems proposes a novel approach to hydrogen separation membrane technology where fundamental engineering material development is fully integrated into fabrication designs, combining functionally graded materials, monolithic module concept and plasma spray manufacturing techniques. The technology is based on the use of Ion Conducting Ceramic Membranes (ICCM) for the selective transport of hydrogen. The membranes will be consist of composites of a proton conducting ceramic and a second metallic phase to promote electrical conductivity. The program will develop and evaluate composite membranes and catalysts for hydrogen separation. Components of the monolithic modules will be fabricated by plasma spray processing. The ICCM hydrogen separation technology is targeted for use within the gasification module of the Vision 21 fossil fuel plant. The proposed technology also results in a stream of pure carbon dioxide. This allows for easy sequestration or other use of this greenhouse gas.

• Fuel-Flexible Gasification-Combustion Technology for Production of Hydrogen and Sequestration-Ready CO₂, GE Energy and Environmental Research Corp., Irvine, CA. (The proposer requested the names of team members remain withheld as proprietary information.)

  Technical Contact: R. George Rizeq, GE Energy and Environmental Research Corp. (949) 859-8851

  GE-Energy and Environmental Research has developed an innovative fuel-flexible advanced gasification-combustion (AGC) concept to produce hydrogen for fuel cells or combustion turbines, and a separate stream of sequestration-ready CO₂. In the AGC technology, coal/opportunity fuels and air are simultaneously converted into separate streams of (1) pure hydrogen to be utilized in fuel cells, (2) sequestration-ready CO₂, and (3) high temperature/pressure oxygen depleted air (i.e., nearly pure nitrogen) to produce electricity in a gas turbine. The process produces near-zero emissions and has a theoretical thermal efficiency up to 93% based on the heating value of the fuel. The proposed research and development program will determine the operating conditions that maximize the separation of CO₂ and pollutants from the vent gas, while simultaneously maximizing coal conversion efficiency and hydrogen production. The economic viability and market potential for commercialization of the process will be evaluated. The proposed three-year program integrates lab-, bench- and pilot-scale studies.

Area of Interest - Advanced Plant Design and Visualization Software

• A Computational Workbench Environment for Virtual Power Plant Simulation, Reaction Engineering International, Salt Lake City, UT, with Visual Influence, Sandy, UT; RECOM, Magstad, Germany; Foster Wheeler Development Corp., Livingston, NJ; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA; and Iowa State University, Ames, IA

  Technical Contact: Michael J. Bockelie (801) 364-6925, ext. 22

  Reaction Engineering International proposed to develop and demonstrate a computational workbench for simulating the performance and emissions of a Vision 21 power plant. The workbench will be constructed as a tightly integrated problem solving environment that contains an array of tools and models that communicate in a seamless manner. It will be designed for the non-specialist and will include models ranging in complexity from heat/mass/energy balance Reactor models to detailed Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based models. The project team will develop models for transient and steady state simulations of key energy plant components, including boilers, fluidized beds, gasifiers, combustors, fuel cells and clean-up process components. The proposed three year program contains three major technical tasks:

  • Produce a prototype workbench capable of simulating the LEBS Proof of Concept boiler system.

  • Assemble and validate component models for a Vision 21 power plant; and

  • Further improve the prototype workbench by simulating two representative DOE-approved Vision 21 power plant systems.

• LES Software for the Design of Low Emission Combustion Systems for Vision 21 Plants, CFD Research Corp., Huntsville, AL with three universities: UC-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA; Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA; State University of New York (SUNY)-Buffalo, Buffalo, NY; and an industrial consortium consisting of Siemens Westinghouse, Orlando, FL; Pratt & Whitney, East Hartford, CT; GE, Irving, CA; Solar Turbine, San Diego, CA; Allied Signal, Phoenix, AZ; Coen Co., Burlingame, CA; MTI Technologies, Anaheim, CA; and Vapor Power Group, Niles, IL

  Technical Contact: Clifford E. Smith, CFD Research Corp. (256) 726-4813

  The proposers of this project will develop an advanced computational software tool to design low emission combustion systems. The proposed simulation tool will greatly reduce the number of experimental tests; this is especially desirable for gas turbine combustor design since high pressure testing is extremely costly. In addition, the Large Eddy Simulation software will provide the capability of assessing and adapting low-emission combustors to alternate fuels, and will greatly reduce the development time cycle of combustion systems. This revolutionary combustion simulation software will be able to accurately simulate the highly transient nature of gaseous-fueled (e.g. natural gas, low BTU syngas, hydrogen, biogas etc.) turbulent combustion and assess innovative concepts needed for Vision 21 plants.

• Coarse-grid Simulation of Reacting and Non-reacting Gas-Particle Flows, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

  Technical Contact: Sankaran Sundaresan, Princeton University (609) 258-4583

  Many processes involved in coal utilization involve handling of fine particles, their pneumatic transport, and their reactions in fluidized beds, spouted beds and circulating fluidized beds. One of the factors limiting our ability to simulate these processes is the hydrodynamics encountered in them. Two major issues that contribute to this limitation are lack of good and computationally expedient models for frictional interaction between particles, and models to capture the consequences of meso-scale structures that are ubiquitous in gas-solid flows. Princeton University's proposal describes a combination of computer simulations and experiments to develop and validate these models. The proposers also plan to implement and validate these models using MFIX, which is a virtual demonstration tool developed at DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). Once the project is completed, MFIX can be used to perform coarse-grid simulation of reactive flows in processes involving fluidized beds, spouted beds and circulating fluidized beds, and a variety of other non-reactive flow problems.