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DOE - Fossil Energy Techline - Issued on: August 12, 1998 DOE Selects R&D Projects to Study Advanced Concepts For Producing Clean Fuels and Feedstocks from CoalDiscarded Coal, Biomass/Solid Wastes Offer Future Fuel Sources; R&D Also Focusing on Air Toxics RemovalFor decades the brackish impoundments at many of the nation's coal cleaning plants have been treated as their name implies - as coal waste ponds. Similarly, most of the 20 million tons of plastics, 250 million rubber tires, and 33 million barrels of waste oil Americans discard each year are left to degrade in landfills or other disposal sites. But to the Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and several of the nine winning proposers selected this week in the department's "Solid Fuels and Feedstocks Grand Challenges" competition, these discarded wastes offer potentially huge, largely untapped sources of clean, affordable energy. Four of the projects announced today propose innovative methods for recovering useable fuels from materials that otherwise would be discarded at coal cleaning plants or utility power stations. Another four will develop technologies that combine coal and biomass or municipal solid waste into clean-burning fuels. The ninth will study a method for removing mercury from coal before it is burned, preventing the mercury from being released to form a hazardous air pollutant. The department's Federal Energy Technology Center in Pittsburgh, PA, and Morgantown, WV, ran the competition. The nine projects were selected from 30 that submitted proposals. Once contracts are negotiated and awarded, the winning proposers will begin the initial phase of a two-phase research and development program. Initially, the proposed concepts will be developed at laboratory scales in projects lasting up to 18 months. The department will provide $300,000 to $500,000 for each initial award, and the selected proposer must match at least 20 percent of the federal funding. Proposers selected for the second phase will receive federal support to scale up and test their technologies in a "proof-of-concept" integrated facility. Energy Department awards for the second phase could range from $500,000 to $1 million for up to three years, and the private sector cost-sharing must meet or exceed the government's share. Recovering Carbon from Coal WastesAn estimated 2 to 3 billion tons of coal "fines" - microscopic coal particles - lie in waste impoundments at coal mines and washing plants around the country. This discarded "waste" contains the energy equivalent of 8 to 12 billion barrels of oil, comparable to a "super giant" oil field. Moreover, each year, mining operations dispose of as much as 30 million tons of coal as waste, and utilities discard millions of tons of unburned carbon along with fly ash in power plant landfills. Four of the projects announced today by the Department of Energy will develop advanced technologies to recover useable fuels from these waste products:
Combining Coal with Biomass/Waste"Biofuels" - a diverse group of energy sources ranging from wood and agribusiness wastes to fast-growing "energy crops" - have long been used to generate steam and electricity for industrial factories and processing plants. Recently, however, utilities and other power generators have become interested in co-firing these fuels with coal to reduce fuel costs and lower greenhouse gas emissions. (When biomass is burned as fuel, its carbon is recycled back into the atmosphere at roughly the same rate at which the original plant material removed it; thus biomass makes little, if any, net contribution to the pool of carbon dioxide in the air.) Also, nearly half of all the landfill materials (municipal and animal waste, plastics, rubber, etc.) discarded in the United States potentially have some energy value; yet, only a small portion is recycled. For example only 8 million of the 33 million barrels of waste oil disposed of each year is reused. Likewise, less than half of the 250 million rubber tires Americans discard each year are recycled. Four of the selected proposers will focus on technologies that mix these biomass or waste products with coal to form low-cost, clean-burning fuels:
Removing Air Toxic ImpuritiesThe Environmental Protection Agency is in the final stages of gathering information to determine whether mercury emissions from power plants should be regulated. Mercury is one of more than one hundred substances classified as a "hazardous air pollutant." In coal, mercury exists in trace amounts within the carbon latticework that makes up coal's complex structure. When the coal is burned, mercury is converted to gaseous form which may be much more difficult to capture. Removing it prior to combustion, therefore, may be the most cost-effective approach if future controls are mandated. The ninth project selected by the Energy Department will develop an innovative approach to remove mercury from coal before it is burned:
Projects Reflect a Redirection of DOE's Coal Preparation R&D The nine projects selected for negotiations represent a new direction for the coal preparation research historically carried out by the Federal Energy Technology Center, the coal research arm of the Energy Department's fossil energy program. The past program was oriented largely on developing improved coal cleaning technologies to remove potential pollutants from coal. While pollutant removal is still a key part of the effort, the new program has been renamed the "Solid Fuels and Feedstocks Program" to reflect its expanded research role in biomass/waste coprocessing, premium carbon products from coal, and the production of tailored feedstocks for industrial processes, residential use, chemicals, and transportation fuels. -- End of TechLine -- For more information, contact: Otis Mills, DOE Federal Energy Technology Center, 412/892-5890, e-mail: mills@fetc.doe.gov Technical Contact: Carl Maronde, DOE Federal Energy Technology Center, 412/892-6246, e-mail: marond@fetc.doe.gov |