Characterizing Impacts of High Temperatures and Pressures in Oxy-Coal Combustion Systems

Reaction Engineering International (REI) will team with experts from the University of Utah, Praxair, and Jupiter Oxygen Corporation to perform multi-scale experiments, coupled with mechanism development, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling to generate modeling tools and mechanisms that are capable of describing high temperature and pressurized oxy-coal combustion. Experimental work will be performed at the University of Utah’s Industrial Combustion and Gasification Research Facility using three different pilot-scale reactors including a 100 kilowatt Oxy-Fuel Combustor (above), 1.5 megawatt multi-fuel furnace, and 300 kilowatt Pressurized (17bar) Entrained Flow Gasifier. The experiments will be tailored to provide a comprehensive data set describing heat release profiles, material temperatures, and mineral matter behavior under high temperature and elevated temperature high-pressure flames generated by oxygen combustion of coal with zero or minimum recycle. Mechanism development and CFD-based combustion modeling will be performed by REI. This work builds on DOE contract NT0005288.