Development of a coal fired pulse combustor for residential space heating. Technical progress report, January--March 1987

The systematic development of the residential combustion system is divided into three phases. Only Phases I and II are detailed here. Phase I constitutes the design, fabrication, testing, and evaluation of a pulse combustor sized for residential space heating. Phase II is an optional phase to develop an integrated system including a heat exchanger. Phase III is projected as a field test of the integrated coal-fired residential space heater. The program logic is depicted in Figure 3-1. The objective of Phase I is to develop an ` advanced pulse coal combustor at the 100,000 Btu/hr scale which can later be integrated with a heat exchanger and controls to form a residential space heater. Phase I is comprised of four technical tasks which are described. The initial test fuels for the Phase I and II effort were expected to be coal slurries. However, it soon became obvious that the availability of the slurries during the development stage would be somewhat problematic and could become an impediment to maintaining progress and schedule. It was therefore decided, after discussions with the DOE Project Manager, to focus the Phase I and II effort upon the use of dry micronized coal and to consider the slurries for a product improvement activity in later phases of the program. This change will not affect the cost, schedule, or technical objectives of the Statement of Work