Development and testing of industrial scale, coal fired combustion system, Phase 3. Sixteenth quarterly technical progress report, October 1--December 31, 1995

In the fourth quarter of calendar year 1995 the installation and checkout of the 20 MMBtu/hr combustor and auxiliary equipment in Philadelphia was completed. The task 5, Site Demonstration Testing, combustor-boiler tests on gas, oil, and coal were initiated. The task 5 effort involves testing the combustor over extended periods under conditions that fully simulate commercial operation and that meet the combustion and environmental specifications for this project. To meet this project objective within the current work scope requires up to 500 hours of testing. The focus of this testing will be on the component and environmental performance of combustor, boiler, coal preparation and feeding, and the stack gas equipment. The facility can be converted to a 500 kW power plant by the addition of a steam turbine, condenser, and cooling tower. However, this added effort is beyond the current work scope and its implementation will depend on recovering the added costs by placing the steam production from the boiler to beneficial use. During the present quarterly reporting period, all the components needed to implement the initial 100 hours of testing under task 5 were installed at the test site, and checkout of this equipment was performed. Since the present installation contained substantial improvements and simplifications to all sub-systems that had been used in the Williamsport facility, each component and sub-system had to be tested individually