Upgraded coal interest group. First quarterly technical progress report, October 1, 1994--December 31, 1994

The interest group got under way effective January 1, 1994, with nine utility members, EPRI, Bechtel, and the Illinois Clean Coal Institute. DOE participation was effective October 1, 1994. The first meeting was held on April 22, 1994 in Springfield, Illinois and the second meeting was held on August 10--11, 1994 at Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Technical reviews were prepared in several areas, including the following: status of low rank coal upgrading, advanced physical coal cleaning, organic sulfur removal from coal, handling of fine coal, combustion of coal water slurries. It was concluded that, for bituminous coals, processing of fines from coal cleaning plants or impoundments was going to be less costly than processing of coal, since the fines were intrinsically worth less and advanced upgrading technologies require fine coal. Penelec reported on benefits of NOX reductions when burning slurry fuels. Project work was authorized in the following areas: Availability of fines (CQ, Inc.), Engineering evaluations (Bechtel), and Evaluation of slurry formulation and combustion demonstrations (EER/MATS). The first project was completed