Power Systems Development Facility. Quarterly report, January--March 1996

The objective of this project is to evaluate hot gas particle control technologies using coal-derived gas streams. This will entail the design, construction, installation, and use of a flexible test facility which can operate under realistic gasification and combustion conditions. The major particular control device issues to be addressed include the integration of the particulate control devices into coal utilization systems, on-line cleaning techniques, chemical and thermal degradation of components, fatigue or structural failures, blinding, collection efficiency as a function of particle size, and scale-up of particulate control systems to commercial size. The conceptual design of the facility was extended to include a within scope, phased expansion of the existing Hot Gas Cleanup Test Facility Cooperative Agreement to also address systems integration issues of hot particulate removal in advanced coal-based power generation systems. This expansion to the Hot Gas Cleanup Test Facility is herein referred to as the Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF). The major emphasis during this reporting period was continuing the detailed design of the Foster Wheeler portion of the facility towards completion and integrating the balance-of-plant processes and particulate control devices (PCDs) into the structural and process designs. Substantial progress in construction activities was achieved during the quarter