NETL: Advanced Research - Pathways to Commercial Applications

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Advanced Research
Pathways to Commercial Applications

CHALLENGE: Separating H₂ and CO₂		Pilot plant pyrolysis unit with biomass feedstack system.
SOLUTION: Re-form coal emissions
This innovative project was conducted to produce hydrogen and fertilizer from coal and biomass using a pyrolysis-reforming process. The process also incorporated the capture of CO₂ from smokestack emissions, producing a carbon fertilizer. The ability to convert char from coal and biomass into both hydrogen and a slow-release fertilizer will facilitate the use of hydrogen as a clean source of energy. It simultaneously provides a way to sequester CO₂, a major greenhouse gas that contributes to the challenge of global climate change.
Read the full Success Story - An Integrated Hydrogen Production – CO₂ Capture Process from Fossil Fuels [PDF-255KB]

CHALLENGE: Short-lived materials		$Laboratory test of refractory performance under extreme operating conditions.$ Laboratory test of refractory performance under extreme operating conditions.
SOLUTION: Extend material lifetime
A crucial element in realizing the successful advanced, zero-emissions power plants of the future is the high-performance coal gasification system. Certain materials needed to construct refractory liners and thermocouple assemblies — key components of gasification systems — have unacceptably short service lives, limiting the efficiency, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of gasification. Through this project, NETL Advanced Research was able to develop ways to extend the lifetimes of these materials. The extended lifetimes translate into possibly over one million dollars in annual operating cost savings, as well as a significant increase in gasifier online availability.
Read the full Success Story - Improved Refractory and Thermocouple Materials for Commercial Slagging Gasifiers [PDF-335KB]

CHALLENGE: Strengthen structural ceramics		Photo of deployed MISSE experiments taken from the Space Shuttle Endeavour. (Photo courtesy of NASA)
SOLUTION: Unique reaction bonding process
A new process for development of continuous silicon carbide (SiC) composites has potential applications in diverse fields from power generation systems to automobile engines to spaceflight. The unique reaction bonding process produced SiC that maintained its strength to at least 1,450°C, which is much higher than any other reaction bonding technique. The material also is approximately 35 percent porous, allowing it to be infiltrated with a second phase such as a polymer or a metal to make a stronger composite. This unique method allowed for the creation of near-net-shape, continuous but porous SiC composites.
Read the full Success Story - Development of Continuous Silicon Carbide Composites [PDF-245KB]

CHALLENGE: Capture mercury emissions

Mercury emitted from power plants may accumulate in the environment. The combustion test facility, with its auxiliary systems, provides a controlled environment for combustion tests.

SOLUTION: Optimize inorganic coal additive

Under this project, inorganic additives are being developed for capturing mercury that are specifically tailored to key parameters related to coal chemistry and that avoid potential ash-handling issues. Currently, mercury is captured from flue gas in scrubbers or by using various sorbents upstream of particulate control devices. This new technology provides a solution that is environmentally friendly, effective at removing both elemental and oxidized forms of mercury, and usable in many flue gas streams that would normally poison activated carbon sorbents. The challenge is to capture low concentrations of various forms of mercury within seconds.

Read the full Success Story -
Inorganic Coal Additive for Controlling Mercury Emissions and Mitigating Slagging and Fouling [PDF-433KB]

CHALLENGE: Better combustion needed		Compressors and carbon dioxide unit at WRI pilot-scale test facility.
SOLUTION: Replace air with oxygen
Oxygen is proving to be a good alternative to air for burning fossil fuels such as coal in an oxy-fuel combustion-based power plant. Oxygen-fueled combustion results in a highly pure exhaust stream that can be captured at relatively low cost and stored in a variety of ways. For example, oxycombustion technology may provide the means to capture greenhouse gases, including CO₂, at existing coal-fired power plants.
Read the full Success Story - Novel Oxygen Supply Process for Oxycombustion Applications [PDF-289KB]

CHALLENGE: Need to test for HVOCs in the field		X-Wand® analyzer rapidly screens for HVOCs in the field.
SOLUTION: Develop portable screening tool
This research has led to development of new, cost-effective commercial technology to rapidly screen for Halogenated Volatile Organic Compound (HVOC) in the Field. This is an important time-and-cost-saving solution for analytical laboratories, since screening can now be performed in minutes rather than by a full, costly exploratory analysis of an extra sample.
Read the full Success Story - Halogenated Volatile Organic Compound (HVOC) in the Field [PDF-220KB]

CHALLENGE: Improve VOC sampling		An attachable, reusable En Core® T-handle is used to push the sampler into the soil.
SOLUTION: Standardize and enhance methods
This project expanded the scope of research and began developing a new subsurface soil sampler, the Accu Core™ Sampler, which can be used to collect soil samples down to 180 feet below the surface. En Novative has sold more than 30,000 of the En Core samplers, and provides royalties based on sales. Under this jointly sponsored research project, NETL Advanced Research has been working with The University of Wyoming’s Western Research Institute and a VOC sampler developer, ESI Chem, Inc. over the past decade to improve and commercialize a sampler called the En Core® Sampler. During this time, the team has been developing validating methods to collect and screen surface-level soil samples for VOCs in field applications using the sampler.
Read the full Success Story - New Soil Volatile Organic Compound Samplers [PDF-244KB]

CHALLENGE: Gasifier too harsh on sensors		Single-crystal sapphire sensor heads with sapphire fiber waveguides achieve greater precision through miniaturization.
SOLUTION: Develop new sensor material
Development of a single-crystal sapphire temperature sensor that can accurately measure gasification conditions in such harsh conditions will increase the reliability and efficiency of gasifier systems. Gasifiers are central to many advanced high-temperature power systems, including integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) systems. Tomorrow’s advanced power generation systems such as FutureGen will benefit from this development. Other high-temperature applications may benefit as well.
Read the full Success Story - Single-Crystal Sapphire Optical Fiber Sensor Instrumentation for Coal Gasifiers [PDF-262KB]

CHALLENGE: Reduce SO₃ gas emissions		SO₃ is the primary agent in acid rain and a precursor to sulfuric acid.
SOLUTION: Inject fine particles to condense the SO₃
A significant pollutant in its gaseous form, SO₃ is the primary agent in acid rain and a precursor to sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄). A computer model determined the amount of SO₃ transformations and interactions across an air preheater (APH) to assist in developing strategies to minimize the level of SO₃ released to the environment. The results of the modeling work indicated a significant reduction of SO₃ in the presence of fine particles less than approximately 5 μm in diameter as the flue gases containing SO₃ passed through the APH and ductwork upstream of the electrostatic precipitator (ESP). The model predictions were corroborated by early field observations during demonstration at a full-scale utility boiler. This finding provided a unique opportunity to reduce the level of SO₃ in the flue gas as it passes through an APH.
Read the full Success Story - SO₃ Emission Control Technology for Coal-Fired Power Plants [PDF-259KB]

CHALLENGE: Match coal fuels to boilers

PCQUEST indices are derived from coal combustion performance characteristics.

SOLUTION: Validate using computer model

The goal of the most recent research was to validate, improve, and provide commercial utility for the predictive indices contained in PCQUEST, so that utilities and coal companies could identify the best coals for their equipment to optimize power plant efficiency. The project involved first quantifying organically associated elements in coal using chemical fractionation (CHF) and discrete minerals using computer-controlled scanning electron microscopy (CCSEM). The types of fly ash and ash deposits that form are temperature- and boiler zone-dependent.

Real-world problems faced by several utilities, coal companies, and other industries have already been mitigated or solved using PCQUEST, saving these industries in some cases up to $350,000 annually for a 500-MW boiler.

Read the full Success Story -
Validation of Fireside Performance Indices Using PCQUEST) [PDF-236KB]

CHALLENGE: Need in-situ combustion control		NETL engineer inspects the CCADS installation in the SimVal rig section.
SOLUTION: Develop heat-resistant sensor
A key requirement for gas turbines — achieving fuel-lean homogenous mixing of the fuel and air in all combustion zones — is also a prerequisite to operating syngas-ready turbines at required emission levels. The Combustion Control & Diagnostics Sensor CCADS research project was aimed at developing a simple multi-sensing yet robust, in-situ monitoring sensor to diagnose combustion conditions and activities. NETL developed and patented this innovative sensor for gas turbines and has licensed it to industrial partner Woodward.
CCADS has a very low cost relative to the total cost of a turbine while also both to turbine manufacturers and utilities. The market potential for advanced nozzles incorporating CCADS is conservatively estimated at tens of thousands of units per year in both new installations and retrofit markets. Eliminating unwanted combustion dynamics could result in an estimated $1 billion per year cost savings.
Read the full Success Story - CCADS: Combustion Control & Diagnostics Sensor for Adv. Gas Turbines [PDF-278KB]

CHALLENGE: Complex and costly design process		NETL researchers conduct a virtual power plant simulation using NETL’s APECS tool.
SOLUTION: Develop new computational tool
A powerful suite of computational and analytical tools used to model and simulate advanced energy and power generation system processes is known as the Advanced Process Engineering Co-Simulator (APECS). This innovative software enables engineers to better understand and optimize power plant performance with respect to fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, and chemical reactions.
APECS also has applicability to other process industries such as petroleum, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. To date, engineers and researchers in more than a dozen organizations worldwide use APECS to address challenges of designing next-generation plants to operate with unprecedented efficiency and near-zero emissions, while operating profitably amid cost fluctuations for raw materials, finished products, and energy.
Read the full Success Story - Integrated Process Engineering and Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation System [PDF-276KB]

CHALLENGE: Major power plant water intake fouling by aquatic organisms		The small zebra mussels densely colonize inside cooling water intake pipes of power plants, thus leading to significant power outages and expense. See the News Release
SOLUTION: Develop biological control agent
This research addresses a serious economic and environmental challenge with the development of an innovative biological control solution.
Power plants have been faced with a major problem — zebra and quagga mussels, invasive strains of very small mollusks, have been clogging power plant water intakes since first seen in U.S. waters in 1988. They have colonized many waterways throughout the Missouri-Mississippi-Ohio river basins, from the Canadian border to the lower Mississippi River and toward the northeastern United States. This innovative AR study coordinated with the New York State Museum has shown that a strain of naturally occurring bacteria, Pseudomonas fluorescens, is selectively lethal to zebra and quagga mussels, but benign to fish and other bivalves. Experimental treatments have achieved up to 98 percent mussel kill, allowing power plants and other facilities to reduce or eliminate the use of chlorination, reducing the risk of potentially harmful effects of chlorine on aquatic ecosystems.
Read the full Success Story - Environmentally Safe Control of Zebra Mussel and Quagga Mussel Fouling [PDF-426KB]

CHALLENGE: Controlling mercury emissions		Process Development Unit at WRI Advanced Technology Center provides pilot-scale testing of advanced pollutant removal techniques.
SOLUTION: Precombustion mercury removal
This unique mercury control technology is expected to be able to remove 80 to 90 percent of the mercury cost effectively through the combination of pretreatment reduction and conventional downstream particulate control equipment. Increasingly stringent Federal and State limits on power plant mercury emissions have required innovative emission control solutions. This research investigated two-stage thermal pretreatment of raw low-rank coals to remove both moisture and mercury before the fuel goes to a conventional pulverized-coal boiler. Testing has successfully demonstrated that precombustion thermal treatment of coal is a very promising technology, with strong commercial potential. NETL Advanced Research teamed with The University of Wyoming’s Western Research Institute (WRI), Alliant Energy, Etaa Energy, Inc., and Montana-Dakota Utilities to develop this unique mercury control technology.
Read the full Success Story - Thermal Precombustion Hg Removal Process for Low-Rank Coal-Fired Plants [PDF-279KB]

CHALLENGE: Identify hydrocarbon contaminant concentrations

Using sediment pore water PAH concentrations to delineate
impacts focuses remedial design
on areas of toxicity.

SOLUTION: Develop new analytical technique

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are chemical contaminants from the burning or degrading of coal, gasoline, fuel oil, and such petroleum-based products as asphalt paving accumulate in the bottom sediments of watersheds, and can affect bottom-dwelling organisms such as clams and oysters, potentially causing negative health effects in humans and wildlife.
Accordingly, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed measuring PAHs in sediment pore water (the water between the sediment particles) as an improved predictor of sediment PAH effects. This research is to develop the first suitable analytical method to determine concentrations of PAHs in sediment pore water and has applied the method to predict PAH bioavailability.

Read the full Success Story -
Better Predictions of PAH Bioavailability in Contaminated Sediments [PDF-249KB]

CHALLENGE: Accessing bitumen from tar sands

Map showing the location of the Athabasca Oil Sands where the WRITE process will be piloted.

SOLUTION: Develop new recovery process

Bitumen is an abundant and highly condensed semi-solid form of crude oil. This natural asphalt is an important national resource, but can be hard to recover and refine from tar (oil) sands without using conventional but expensive enhanced recovery methods. This process is designed to upgrade bitumen near oil sands production fields, making it unnecessary to add costly diluents prior to transport through pipelines to a central location. Further development and future commercialization of the WRITE process add to the likelihood of successful utilization of this abundant but expensive and difficult-to-extract fossil fuel resource.

NETL Advanced Research initiated research with The University of Wyoming’s Western Research Institute (WRI) to develop a field upgrading process known as the WRI Thermal Enhancement (WRITE) process. The WRITE Process is helping to make conversion and upgrading of bitumen from Canadian oil sands more economical. Also participating are an industrial partner, MEG Energy Corporation, Calgary, Alberta, which holds options for Canadian rights to the process and the site where the process will be piloted; and SNC-Lavalin, a Montreal, Quebec Architect & Engineering (A&E) firm specializing in process and facility design.

Read the full Success Story -
WRI Thermal Enhancement (WRITE) Process for Pipeline Ready Heavy Oil [PDF-262KB]

CHALLENGE: High capital costs of IGCC		Photograph of a Pall Corporation iron aluminide hot-gas filter. These filters, made from an ORNL-developed alloy, give excellent performance in coal gasification plants. Over 2,000 are now in use, some for over six years.
SOLUTION: Develop low-cost hot-gas filter
Iron aluminide is a corrosion-resistant material that holds strong potential as a long-lasting filter medium in IGCC and other advanced combustion system applications. The filter is used to trap particles from hot synthesis gas before those particles can enter and contaminate the gas and steam turbines — which would otherwise reduce efficiency and shorten the lifetime of the turbines. The aim was to reduce filter cost through design optimization. A cooperative agreement with Pall Corporation, a leading manufacturer of filter elements, enabled ORNL to successfully transfer the new technology. Pall added the iron aluminide filter to its S-Series PSS® Filter Element product line, where it has become a best-selling filter with more than 2,000 sales to date.
Read the full Success Story - Development of Improved Metallic Hot Gas Filtsers for IGCC and PFBC Systems [PDF-285KB]

CHALLENGE: Need durable, effective sensors		High-temperature total NOx sensor is highly miniaturizedand resistant to harsh combustion conditions.
SOLUTION: Advanced, compact sensors
The O₂ sensor is very small and does not require an expensive external O₂ reference, relying instead on an internal metal/metal oxide reference sealed by a unique deformation bonding method to generate a fixed partial O₂ pressure. The sensor is fabricated from relatively common and inexpensive ceramic materials that can withstand the environment inside a combustion chamber. These features enable multiple O₂ sensors to be placed throughout a combustor, allowing the operator to map the combustion process and control it more tightly, leading to higher efficiency and lower emissions. As an additional payoff from this research, the underlying technology for a high-temperature total NOX (NO + NO₂) sensor has been developed and patented by Ohio State with support from NETL’s AR program. The central feature of the NOX sensor is a platinum-based porous catalyst filter that filters out elements that otherwise would skew measurements. This filter also eliminates the need for an additional air reference sensor. The high-temperature total NOX sensor was selected for an R&D 100 award in July 2007 by an independent judging panel and the editors of R&D Magazine.
Read the full Success Story - High-Temp. Ceramic Microsensor Development for Combustion Boiler Optimization [PDF-270KB]

CHALLENGE: Expensive power plant scale-up		Using MFIX, NETL researchers study a visualization of a power plant component.
SOLUTION: Simulates plant performance
Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges ( MFIX) is modeling software that reduces the cost of developing and commercializing advanced coal technologies through intricate simulations. MFIX solves physics-based equations to simulate high-solids-loading flows that occur in critical equipment items, such as coal gasifiers, allowing engineers to replace expensive build-and-test steps with much cheaper simulations, thereby encouraging the discovery of radically novel designs. MFIX is being used by researchers around the world to model a variety of processes ranging from coal gasification to volcanic eruption flows. In 2006, MFIX won an award for Excellence in Technology Transfer from the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC), while in 2007, MFIX received a prestigious R&D 100 award for technological excellence from R&D Magazine. Developing the technologies needed to use coal cleanly, efficiently, and with less carbon emissions entails repeatedly building and testing designs at several different scales. This build-and-test method increased the cost of developing new technologies, limiting engineers abilities to develop the novel designs that are needed to achieve near-zero emissions in future power plants. The solution was the much-needed software suite known as MFIX.
Read the full Success Story - Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges ( MFIX) Modeling Software [PDF-282KB]

CHALLENGE: Remove mercury from combustion of low-rank coals		Performance and cost advantages were demonstrated at the Antelope Valley Station in North Dakota.
SOLUTION: Improve activated carbon reactivity by sorbent enhancement
Because gaseous mercury can be present as either oxidized or elemental mercury, any effective control strategy must optimize control of both. Plants firing lower-rank coals, including subbituminous and lignite, are considered to have the most problematic and/or challenging mercury capture applications because these coals have low chlorine content, resulting in mercury emissions that are mostly elemental, thereby making capture more difficult. A sorbent enhancement additive (SEA) technology was developed that significantly improves the reactivity of AC, thereby making it much more effective at capturing both elemental and oxidized forms of mercury. The technology can also improve native capture by existing fly ash and can improve oxidation for subsequent removal by downstream sulfur dioxide (SO₂) control systems. Adaptable as well to other industries such as cement production, the SEA technology is available commercially.
Read the full Success Story - Sorbent Enhancement Additives for Mercury Control [PDF-236KB]

CHALLENGE: Simultaneous removal of pollutants from flue gas		Inside the Powerspan ECO slipstream reactor.
SOLUTION: Innovative electro-catalytic oxidation technology
The Electro-Catalytic Oxidation (ECO®) technology is designed to simultaneously remove nitrogen oxide compounds (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), acid gases — such as hydrogen fluoride (HF), hydrochloric acid (HCl), and sulfur trioxide (SO₃) — mercury (Hg), and other metals from the flue gases of coal-fired power plants. The ECO technology has potential for new power plant designs that burn high-sodium lignites but are significantly impacted by the sodium-rich ash. Sodium reduction upstream of the reactor and aggressive ECO reactor-cleaning are possible methods that will enable the ECO technology to be feasible. Future testing must be aimed at measures to reduce the sodium aerosol content of the flue gas in order to prevent the formation of sodium-rich deposits. An ECO slipstream reactor system was designed and fabricated to test the in-situ impacts on the electrodes of flue gas derived from high-sodium lignite coal.
Read the full Success Story - Impacts of Lignite Properties on Powerspan’s NOx Oxidation System [PDF-315KB]

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