DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF INDUSTRIAL SCALE, COAL FIRED COMBUSTION SYSTEM, PHASE 3

In the second half of calendar year 1998, no work was performed on the present project. The 20 MMBtu/hr combustor-boiler facility was operated for 11 tests, primarily with Coal Tech resources on biomass combustion and gasification. The total test days on the Philadelphia facility to the end of August 1998 was 119. Of these, 36 tests were part of another DOE project on sulfur retention is slag, and 8 were on an in-house biomass combustion effort. The test days on the other project are listed here because they demonstrate the durability of the combustor, which is one of the objectives of the present project. Also, the test work of 1998 revealed for the first time the major potential of this combustor for biomass combustion. These tests are double the 63 tests in the original plan for this project. All key project objectives have been exceeded including combustor durability, automated combustor operation, NO{sub x} emissions as low as 0.07 lb/MMBtu and SO{sub 2} emissions as low as 0.2 lb/MMBtu. In addition, a novel post-combustion NOx control process has been tested on a 37 MW and 100 MW utility boiler. The only effort remaining on this project is facility disassembly and Final Report. However, as part of the commercialization effort for this combustor technology, Coal Tech is planning to maintain the combustor facility in an operational mode at least through 2001. Coal Tech is focusing on utilizing the combustor with biomass fuels in very low cost, small (1 MW nominal) steam power plants. Worldwide application of this technology would have a major impact in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions because the energy content of agricultural biomass is equal to the energy content of the USA's annual coal production