Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “EPRI”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Technologies for Advanced Reactors (Workshop Summary Report)

A workshop on artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) for advanced reactors (AR) was held October 5-6, 2021. The workshop was to be attended in-person at ANL but COVID restrictions forced the workshop to go virtual. The objectives of the workshop were to identify the most promising AI/ML opportunities for improving advanced reactor design, optimizing plant performance, and enhancing economic competitiveness and to develop an understanding of the scientific, engineering and licensing challenges facing their application. The workshop planning committee included GAIN, EPRI and NEI and members of three national laboratories (ANL, INL, and ORNL). The workshop was attended by more than 200 individuals representing academic and scientific institutions and the nuclear power industry. The definition put forth for an AI/ML system was one that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of achieving its goals. In this report AI/ML refers to next generation algorithms that include deep learning, statistical analysis and data analytics and associated scientific computing and their potential application to the design, licensing, operation and maintenance of ARs. These methods typically incorporate models built from process data and may also include data generated by simulations that represent the behavior of a system. The workshop was organized in response to the growing interest in application of AI/ML for improving the economic competitiveness of nuclear energy. Increasingly more resources are being allocated to investigating the benefits of AI/ML methods. The DOE created the Artificial Intelligence & Technology Office to promote their development. And within the Office of Nuclear Energy, resources have been allocated to explore and understand the potential benefits of AI/ML. Additionally, the national laboratories are strategically positioned with DOE computing facilities such as Summit, Perlmutter, Aurora and Frontier that support large-scale simulations, hybrid HPC models with AI surrogates, and the exploration of new types of generative models emerging from multi-model data streams and sources. The workshop was organized with members of the AR community to understand the effort and to identify the level of interest and progress in this emerging technology. The workshop discussions focused on identifying opportunities for AI/ML across diverse areas of the nuclear industry and identifying current scientific and engineering challenges for advanced reactors that might be addressed through transformational uses of AI/ML. Discussion panels focused on four high-interest technical domains for advanced reactors: design, maintenance and operations, energy storage, and materials. The results of those discussions are summarized in this report. This includes opportunities that were identified for exploiting AI techniques and methods to improve the efficacy and efficiency of reactor analysis and to improve the operation and optimization of advanced reactors. Advanced reactor developers expressed an interest in learning more about AI/ML methods and their application. This included understanding whether ML methods can provide an advantage over existing nonlinear data regression methods for collapsing high-fidelity simulation results into faster running models. A consensus emerged that AR advances planned for the next decade will benefit from the use of AI/ML tools. The need exists to understand and model complex systems across length scales and modalities. AI/ML is a tool for discovery that can yield a set of engineering principles for use by nuclear engineers, licensing bodies, and operators to solve problems in plant design, safety analyses, autonomous operation, and predictive maintenance. While AI/ML represents a new set of tools, an awareness by the nuclear community of the full potential is still in the early stages so there is a need to increase awareness. It appears that the wide-spread adoption of AI/ML tools for ARs would be facilitated by future educational workshops that describe foundational methods and capabilities and describe successful applications.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Evaluation of Joint Cyber/Safety Risk in Nuclear Power Systems

This report presents an analysis of the Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS) for a generic Boiling Water Reactor (BWR)-4 NPP. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) developed Hazards and Consequences Analysis for Digital Systems (HAZCADS) process is applied to the ECCS and its subsystems to identify unsafe control actions (UCAs) which act as possible cyber events of concern. The analysis is performed for two design basis events: Small-break Loss of Coolant Accident (SLOCA) and general transients (TRANS), such as unintended reactor trip. In previous work, HAZCADS UCAs were combined with other cyber-attack analysis to develop a risk-informed approach; however, this was for a single system. This report explores advanced systems engineering modeling approaches to model the interactions between digital assets across multiple systems which may be targeted by cyber adversaries. The complex and interdependent design of digital systems has the potential to introduce emergent cyber properties that are generally not covered by hazard analyses nor formal nuclear Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA). The R&D and supporting analysis presented here explores approaches to predict and manage how interdependent system properties effect risk. To show the potential impact of a successful cyber-attack to formal PRA event tree probabilities, HAZCADS analysis was also used. HAZCADS was also used to model the automatic depressurization system (ADS) automatic actuation. This analysis extended to an integrated system analysis for common-cause failure (CCF). In this aspect, the HAZCADS analysis continued by analyzing plant design details for system connectivity in support of critical plant functions. A dependency matrix was developed to depict the integrated functionality of the interconnected systems. Areas of potential CCF are indicated. Future work could include adversary attack development to show how CCF could be caused, resulting in PRA events. Across the multiple systems that comprise the ECCS, the analysis shows that the change in such probabilities was very different between systems. This indicates that some systems have a larger potential risk impact from successful cyber-attack or digital failure, which indicates a need for these systems to have a higher priority for design and defensive measures. Furthermore, we were able to establish that a risk analysis using any arbitrary threat model establishes an ordering of components with regard to cyber-risk. This ordering can be used to influence the overall system design with an eye to lowering risk, or as a way to understand real-time risk to operational systems based on a current threat landscape. Expert knowledge of both the analysis process and the system being analyzed is required to perform a HAZCADS analysis. The need for a tiered risk analysis is demonstrated by the results of this report.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Multiple Stream Low-Cost Recycling Method

The global composite industry generates large quantities of waste and which mostly end as landfill due to lack of meaningful end-use applications for the multiple waste streams. In a recent report by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), waste generated by the wind industry could reach 370,000 tons a year of composite wind energy blades being decommissioned and scrapped. Wind energy is just one major industry utilizing composite materials. The waste generated by industry includes End-of-Life (EoL) materials and manufacturing process scrap. GreenTex Solutions has developed a unique and innovative technology to recycle the composite waste streams in a range of forms made from production waste and EoL materials. This includes manufacturing waste materials such as dry chopped fiber tow, loose fibers, shredded fibers from reinforcement fabrics, cured/semi-cured prepregs, and it also includes fully-cured composite structure waste (such as edge trims from cured parts) from manufacturing aircraft, automobiles, wind blades, boats, and composite cylinders (tanks). Current recycling methods involve recovering the structural fiber by removing the matrix resin through methods such as pyrolysis. The resulting fibers are used in injection molding or wet laid nonwoven mats and other usable forms. The GreenTex technology bypasses these intermediate steps to create the lowest possible recycling processing costs and the lowest embodied energy/CO2 emissions. The end-product from the GreenTex technology is a finished industrial composite part/application versus intermediate fibers or fabrics. The GreenTex manufacturing process enables cross-industry reuse of recycled feedstock by taking waste from multiple industries (wind energy, aerospace, marine, etc.) and recycles the waste into a product used in other industries. The initial target market application is structural flooring for intermodal shipping containers and truck bodies. One of the team’s key partners is Wabash National which produced 29,000 truck bodies in 2019. The current flooring system is comprised of solid oak “butcher board” laminated panels. Additionally, Mediterranean Shipping Containers (MSC) transports over 1.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units per year in intermodal shipping containers. The current container floor is laminated hardwood that is harvested from the rain forests of Central and South America. The project is to develop a flooring system made from recycled composites that can be qualified for both companies (Wabash and MSC). Initial prototypes validated that the recycled composites panels are lighter and thinner with much higher mechanical strength. These results suggest a typical truck trailer would have 20% lower tare weight. The GreenTex technology is not limited to flooring and is widely applicable to other transportation elements such as walls, roof elements, cab areas and related structural components. Under this project different composite waste streams were evaluated and then combined to develop a formulation that would meet the targeted performance criteria for a flooring system. Wet compression molding was used to fabricate plaques at different tonnage using various composite waste streams. The plaques were tested for flexure and impact.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Deep Learning for Fish Identification from Sonar Data: CRADA 481 [Abstract only]

To help solve the challenges of hydropower energy production related to the potential for eel injury and mortality from passage through hydropower turbines, we will develop a deep learning method for identifying migrating eels from imaging sonar. This project continues with a prior project conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in FY2018-2019. The proposed method employs Convolution Neural Network (CNN), a powerful deep learning method for image classification, to distinguish between images of eels and non-eel moving objects. We propose to collect more laboratory data and add more existing field data to train a powerful deep learning model. In addition to eels and sticks as classified in previous studies, we will add images containing several non-eel fish species and macrophyte mats to the training data. A multi-class classification model will be developed to distinguish these objects. Object detection algorithm will be explored and developed to locate and identify multiple objects in each sonar frame. Motion analysis will be performed to track the movement of objects in sonar video clips. We will also improve the data conversion algorithm so that it can read in both DIDSON and ARIS (both are imaging sonars developed by Sound Metrics Corp) data files and convert them to images with comparably high resolution, regardless of the varying detection ranges in different environments. The developed algorithms will be packaged as a software with a graphic user interface. The software will be evaluated by external collaborators in the field. The developed framework can be generalized for automatic monitoring of fish passage and migration using other imaging sonars like ARIS and will benefit the design and operation of ecologically friendly hydroelectric projects. The developed wavelet and CNN model configuration parameters can potentially be transferred to lamprey detection in similar riverine environments.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Enhanced Control, Optimization, and Integration of Distributed Energy Applications (ECO-IDEA)

With support from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) partnered with Xcel Energy, Schneider Electric, Varentec, and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to meet the goals of the Enabling Extreme Real-Time Grid Integration of Solar Energy (ENERGISE) program. This project developed and validated an innovative data-enhanced hierarchical control architecture that enables the efficient, reliable, resilient, and secure operation of future distribution systems with a high penetration of distributed energy resources like solar energy. The architecture enables a hybrid control approach where a centralized control layer is complemented by distributed control algorithms for solar inverters and autonomous control of grid edge devices. It is fully interoperable and includes all the cybersecurity aspects necessary for reliable and secure system operation. The hybrid approach can seamlessly integrate multiple voltage-regulation technologies, both at central and grid-edge levels, which enables reliable and efficient system operation in the face of unpredictable conditions. The overarching goal of the Eco-Idea project is to develop, validate, and deploy a unique and innovative Data-Enhanced Hierarchical Control (DEHC) architecture that comprehensively addresses the formidable challenges associated with proliferation of high penetration of distributed PV such as reverse power flows, transients from variability of PV systems, feeder load balancing, and voltage stability. These issues are exposing the weaknesses of existing grid operations and controls - including, but not limited to, lack of grid situational awareness, heuristic and slow-acting control actions, latency of control for emergency situations, and points of failure in communications. The proposed architecture will comprehensively resolve the deficiencies of current operational settings - where monitoring and control solutions proposed across industry and academia may not be interoperable and may not coexist in the same system - and will enable an efficient, reliable, resilient, and secure operation of future distribution systems with penetration of solar energy well beyond current limits. The DEHC architecture was developed and validated rigorously through hardware-in-loop simulations in the laboratory environment and deployed on the field.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Front-End Engineering Design Study for Retrofit Post-Combustion Carbon Capture on a Natural Gas Combined Cycle Power Plant

The objective of the project is to conduct a Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) study to determine the technical and economic feasibility of installing a retrofit, post-combustion, carbon capture facility on a commercially operating, natural gas-fired, combined cycle (NGCC) power plant. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), California Resources Corporation (CRC), and Fluor Corporation used Fluor's Econamine FG Plus SM (EFG+) conducted the FEED study for capturing CO 2 produced by CRC's 550 MWe Elk Hills Power Plant (EHPP), located in the Elk Hills Oil Field near Tupman, Kern County, California. The EHPP was commissioned in 2003 and is powered by two General Electric 7FA gas turbines, with two heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) providing steam to a General Electric D11 steam turbine. The target capture amount is 4,000 tonnes CO 2 /day for use in either enhanced oil recovery or dedicated geological saline storage located on CRC property at or nearby EHPP. This CO 2 is captured from a combination of the CO 2 emitted from the flue gas from EHPP and the flue gas generated from a natural gas-fired auxiliary boiler that supplies steam to the EFG+ process.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Valuation of Hydrogen Technology on the Electric Grid Using Production Cost Modeling: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-18-00736

This research project will estimate the value to the United States electric grid of deploying hydrogen technology (such as electrolyzers and hydrogen-fueled generation) under projected conditions of high renewable penetration. The analysis will advance the state of the art in systems-level cost-benefit analysis of hydrogen technology for the electric grid by incorporating production cost modeling results in the analysis. Large-scale grid simulation tools will be used to evaluate total system production cost and grid operation when hydrogen technology is deployed for applications such as energy storage and demand response. Scenarios will include one or more future grid mixes in the Western Interconnect (WI) with a high proportion of intermittent renewables. Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will work with four utility companies to refine scenarios. Results of the analysis will include comparing the net cost of hydrogen to other technologies for long duration storage, and of power-to-gas (P2G) scenarios including merchant hydrogen sale and hydrogen-fueled generation.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2021

Rotary Table Design for the Modular In-Chamber Electron Beam Welding System

The Modular In-Chamber Electron Beam Welding (MIC-EBW) system which is being designed and assembled under DOE Projects DE-NE0008846 (Phase 1--completed) and DE-NE0009039 (Phase 2—in progress) includes several major components: four modules (the lower vacuum module, electron beam module, a spacer module, and a lid), a robust rotary table, large vacuum pumps/system, electron beam welding system controls/power supply, and an electron beam generator/gun. Many of these components and their functions were described in the earlier EPRI-DOE report 3002018146. This report provides an overview of one of the primary components, the rotary table, that has been designed and will be manufactured by Rusach International in Phase 2 of the project.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Materials for Advanced Ultra-Supercritical (A-USC) Steam Turbines --- A-USC Component Demonstration

The U.S. Advanced Ultra-Supercritical (A-USC) Consortium was formed in 2001 as a government/industry program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Ohio Coal Development Office (OCDO) and cost shared by industrial and not-for-profit partners. The purpose of the consortium was to advance the state of the art for power generation by evaluating and developing materials that allow the use of advanced steam cycles in coal-based power plants. These advanced cycles, with steam temperatures up to 1400°F (760°C), can increase the efficiency of coal-fired boilers from an average of 35% (current U.S. fleet) to more than 45% higher heating value (HHV) (>49% lower heating value [LHV]). The increase in a plant’s efficiency is limited unless new materials able to withstand these higher operating temperatures and pressures are identified and approved for use. The A-USC Consortium identified these needed materials during earlier phases of the program. It developed the welding and joining techniques along with manufacturing processes for casting and wrought products made from these new high-nickel alloys. It subjected these materials to extensive laboratory and steam loop testing. It then obtained ASME code approval for their use in U.S. boiler systems. The program’s successes leave this last remaining activity (ComTest Phase 2) that the U.S. utility industry has recommended to be accomplished prior to commercialization. The focus of the activity is the evaluation and demonstration of commercial readiness for “full scale” components to be made from these nickel-based alloy materials and provided by a U.S. domestic supply chain that is new to working with these alloys. According to studies completed by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the cost of an A-USC plant is approximately 20% higher than a non-A-USC plant because of its use of nickel-based alloys needed for the high temperature operating conditions. However, CO 2 reductions of approximately 30% from the current fleet average provide a strong incentive for its consideration. The actual costs and perceived value for CO 2 abatement will determine whether new or retrofitted plants are undertaken, although decisions to build A-USC plants in India would indicate its economic feasibility while also being part of a global carbon emissions strategy. The work by the A-USC Consortium, prior to the start of the ComTest project, has included lab scale and pilot scale materials testing, both in air and oxy-combustion. This testing has included air-cooled and steam-cooled “loops” that were installed into existing operating utility boilers to gain exposure of these materials to realistic conditions of high temperature and corrosion caused by the constituents in the coal ash. The A-USC Consortium also gained ASME Code approval of the Inconel 740 material, has cast and extruded the largest high nickel precipitation hardened alloys, and developed unique welding techniques to avoid problems identified by the competing European program. However, as valuable as these material test loops and accomplishments have been for obtaining information, their scale is below that required to minimize the risk associated for a U.S. utility to build a multibillion-dollar A-USC power plant. To reduce the final identified risk barrier to full-scale commercialization of these advanced materials and systems, the A-USC Consortium (guided by a utility industry advisory committee) has identified the key areas of the technology they desire to see as being capable of full-scale manufacturing and/or fabrication from an identified, capable U.S. domestic supplier base. A significant amount of work was accomplished during Phase 1 to identity the components, as well as the component size, that would be manufactured from advanced alloys such as Inconel 740H or Haynes 282 alloys. Pathways to supply these components for ComTest have been identified, as well as any further development that would be required. The Phase 2 effort used Phase 1 findings for designing these key full-scale components for A-USC boilers and turbines to include large castings; extrusions, forgings, fabrication of water walls and steam loops with headers from advanced materials, raw material (such as pipe extrusion billets) are at the commercial readiness level to permit advancement to a demonstration project. The Phase 2 work scope was addressed by a diverse team, including government, industry, and not-for-profit partners. The work scope under Phase 2 addressed fabrication of components identified as being outside of the proven capabilities of the existing supply chain, including the following: Steam turbine rotor forging and Haynes 282 nozzle carrier casting Superheater and reheater header and tube assemblies Large-diameter pipe extrusions and forgings Test valve articles to support ASME Code approval. In addition, key fabrication steps were completed, including boiler weld overlays and simulated field repairs. Throughout, extensive inspection and quality assurance testing of the components were performed. The team worked to advance ASME Code approval for key components and processes. Although much of the focus of ComTest Phase 2 was the high-temperature nickel-based alloy materials, a broader range of materials were incorporated, which would be representative of the materials used in full-scale A-USC power plant applications and have cross-cutting applicability on other high-temperature power generation options, such as advanced nuclear, supercritical CO 2 cycles, and central solar receivers. This report that has been submitted is organized in the following manner: Section 1 contains an Executive Summary. Section 2 discusses the ComTest project background and organization. Section 3 discusses project management and reporting. Section 4 discusses the procurement of nickel-based alloy and other A-USC materials and components. Section 5 discusses the fabrication of procurement of nickel-based alloy and other A-USC materials and components. Section 6 discusses the fabrication of cast nickel-based A-USC steam turbine components. Section 7 discusses the fabrication of forged nickel-based A-USC steam turbine piping and steam pipe components. Section 8 discusses the qualification of pressure relieve valves (PRVs) for A-USC power plants. Section 9 discusses proposed plans for future evaluation of A-USC components. Section 10 contains the summary and conclusion.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2022

Performance Testing of a Moving-Bed Gasifier Using Coal, Biomass, and Waste Plastic Blends to Generate White Hydrogen

The objective of this DOE-funded project by the Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI), Hamilton Maurer International (HMI) and Sotacarbo S.p.A. (Sotacarbo), is to qualify coal, biomass, and plastic waste blends based on performance testing of selected pellet recipes in a pilot-scale updraft moving-bed gasifier. The testing will provide relevant data to advance the commercial-scale design of the moving-bed gasifier to be able to successfully use these feedstocks to produce hydrogen. In particular, the effects of the waste plastics on feedstock development (i.e., blending and pelletizing) and the resulting products (i.e., syngas compositions, organic condensate production, and ash characteristics) are a focus. The gasifier is Hamilton Mauer International, Inc. (HMI)’s moving-bed gasifier, which has been proven capable of gasifying nearly all coal ranks. It has also shown the ability in prior testing work to gasify wood chips. However, mixtures of these fuels with plastic wastes have not been prepared and gasified together. The feedstocks will be prepared by California Pellet Mill (CPM) under contract to HMI. The technical tasks and current status for this two-year research project are: Feed Procurement and Preparation: Nine different feedstocks were prepared from varying compositions of PRB coal, corn stover biomass, and car fluff waste plastics. Fuel pellets were produced by California Pellet Mill and shipped to Sotacarbo’s test facility in Italy. Test Plan Development: A test plan was created to define the test runs to be performed. The test plan detailed the different tests that were run, instrumentation used, extractive samples taken, and relevant figures of merit. Gasifier Testing: Tests are currently being performed in the pilot-scale gasifier at Sotacarbo using nine different fuel feedstocks generated from varying mixtures of coal, biomass, and plastic wastes. The testing will provide information on gasification reaction efficiency/performance, yielding relevant data for models used to scale up the gasifier design. This task will also include work to reassemble the gasifier at Sotacarbo and perform a baseline 100% coal run. Data Analysis and Reporting: Review of the data, determination of figures of merit, and interpretation of the results to be reported. The results will be used to specify the range of feedstock blends that can be successfully gasified as well as quantify gasifier outputs based on specific blends. This paper will be summarize the pelletizing procedure that insures the viability of the tri-fuel pellets for the gasification runs that are being performed at Sotacarbo’s 30mm up draft moving bed gasifier. Initial gasification tests have been conducted, and all the lab scale tri-fuel pellet gasification runs will be completed by the fall of 2022. Performance data will enable modeling of a full-scale HMI industrial scale gasifier supporting both CHP and Hydrogen production.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2022

Commercial-Scale Front-End Engineering Design (Feed) Study for MTR’s Membrane CO 2 Capture Process

This is the final report for a DOE sponsored project (DE-FE00031846) where MTR, Sargent & Lundy (S&L), Trimeric Corporation (Trimeric), in cooperation with Basin Electric Power Cooperative (BEPC), and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), completed a full-scale Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) study to evaluate the retrofit of MTR’s membrane-based post-combustion carbon dioxide (CO2) capture technology to the BEPC Dry Fork Station (DFS) Unit 1. The capture plant is designed to treat the entire flue gas flow from DFS; it is estimated that this system will capture 6,560 tonnes per day (TPD) of carbon dioxide. The overall goal of the project was to develop an AACE Level 2 Capital Cost Estimate with an accuracy of ±15% to demonstrate the economic feasibility of constructing and operating the MTR CO2 capture plant.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2020

Characterizing Impacts of Dry Coal Feeding in High Pressure Oxy-Coal Combustion Systems

Reaction Engineering International (REI) has managed a team of experts from the University of Utah, Southeast University (SEU) in Nanjing, China, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Corrosion Management Ltd. (C-M), Praxair, and Brigham Young University (BYU) to investigate dry pulverized coal feeding for pressurized oxy-coal combustion. Dry feed firing systems for entrained flow, pressurized, oxy-coal combustors have not been well developed, although related technologies have been used in the Shell Gasification Process and for pressurized fluid bed combustion. DOE-funded research recently completed at REI and the University of Utah focused on characterizing impacts of high temperatures and pressures in oxy-coal combustion systems. For high pressure combustion, that research used a coal slurry feed into a 17 bar pressurized combustor. As a consequence of that research, it was identified that fuel feeding and firing system flexibility are challenges that require attention. Based on that experience, the approach of using a coal slurry feed system leads to challenges in producing consistent atomization of the slurry, which causes burnout problems, especially at high pressures. In addition, slurry atomization processes may be difficult to scale to sizes appropriate for practical commercial use. Dry pressurized coal burner systems, on the other hand, have the potential to yield efficiency gains, improve flexibility and facilitate applications at larger scales. Experimental work was conducted at the University of Utah Industrial Combustion and Gasification Research Facility as well as the 100 kW pressurized oxy-coal combustor (POC) facility at Brigham Young University. Mechanism development and CFD-based combustion and dense-phase flow modeling were performed at REI. Successful completion of the project objectives has resulted in the following key deliverables: 1) Design and prototype of a pressurized pulverized coal feeding and oxy-firing system 2) Data from a 100kW, pressurized (15 bar) entrained flow reactor with a dry feeding delivery and burner system that describes flame characteristics, radiative heat flux profiles, carbon burnout, along with characteristics of ash aerosols, fouling, and slagging. 3) Validated and transportable models that describe the relevant conditions in pressurized oxy-combustion systems and that can be used for scale-up and optimization. 4) Principles to guide design of high pressure, pilot-scale and full-scale coal oxy-firing systems. 5) Assessment of pressurized oxy-combustion impacts on key parameters relevant to oxy-coal fired utility boilers such as coal devolatilization, char oxidation, mineral matter transformation, deposition, and corrosion. The experimental data, pressurized oxy-firing system principles, and process mechanisms provided by this work can be used by electric utilities, boiler OEMs, equipment suppliers, design firms, software vendors, consultants and government agencies to assess the use of high temperature and high pressure oxy-combustion in current research and to guide development of new oxy-coal boiler designs.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2021

Characterizing Impacts of Dry Coal Feeding in High Pressure Oxy-Coal Combustion Systems

Reaction Engineering International (REI) has managed a team of experts from the University of Utah, Southeast University (SEU) in Nanjing, China, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Corrosion Management Ltd. (C-M), Praxair, and Brigham Young University (BYU) to investigate dry pulverized coal feeding for pressurized oxy-coal combustion. Dry feed firing systems for entrained flow, pressurized, oxy-coal combustors have not been well developed, although related technologies have been used in the Shell Gasification Process and for pressurized fluid bed combustion. DOE-funded research recently completed at REI and the University of Utah focused on characterizing impacts of high temperatures and pressures in oxy-coal combustion systems. For high pressure combustion, that research used a coal slurry feed into a 17 bar pressurized combustor. As a consequence of that research, it was identified that fuel feeding and firing system flexibility are challenges that require attention. Based on that experience, the approach of using a coal slurry feed system leads to challenges in producing consistent atomization of the slurry, which causes burnout problems, especially at high pressures. In addition, slurry atomization processes may be difficult to scale to sizes appropriate for practical commercial use. Dry pressurized coal burner systems, on the other hand, have the potential to yield efficiency gains, improve flexibility and facilitate applications at larger scales. Experimental work was conducted at the University of Utah Industrial Combustion and Gasification Research Facility as well as the 100 kW pressurized oxy-coal combustor (POC) facility at Brigham Young University. Mechanism development and CFD-based combustion and dense-phase flow modeling were performed at REI. Successful completion of the project objectives has resulted in the following key deliverables: 1) Design and prototype of a pressurized pulverized coal feeding and oxy-firing system 2) Data from a 100kW, pressurized (15 bar) entrained flow reactor with a dry feeding delivery and burner system that describes flame characteristics, radiative heat flux profiles, carbon burnout, along with characteristics of ash aerosols, fouling, and slagging. 3) Validated and transportable models that describe the relevant conditions in pressurized oxy-combustion systems and that can be used for scale-up and optimization. 4) Principles to guide design of high pressure, pilot-scale and full-scale coal oxy-firing systems. 5) Assessment of pressurized oxy-combustion impacts on key parameters relevant to oxy-coal fired utility boilers such as coal devolatilization, char oxidation, mineral matter transformation, deposition, and corrosion. The experimental data, pressurized oxy-firing system principles, and process mechanisms provided by this work can be used by electric utilities, boiler OEMs, equipment suppliers, design firms, software vendors, consultants and government agencies to assess the use of high temperature and high pressure oxy-combustion in current research and to guide development of new oxy-coal boiler designs.

pressurized oxy-coal combustion, sub-micron ash ae↗
DOE OSTI2022

Characterizing Impacts of Dry Coal Feeding in High Pressure Oxy-Coal Combustion Systems

Reaction Engineering International (REI) has managed a team of experts from the University of Utah, Southeast University (SEU) in Nanjing, China, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Corrosion Management Ltd. (C-M), Praxair, and Brigham Young University (BYU) to investigate dry pulverized coal feeding for pressurized oxy-coal combustion. Dry feed firing systems for entrained flow, pressurized, oxy-coal combustors have not been well developed, although related technologies have been used in the Shell Gasification Process and for pressurized fluid bed combustion. DOE-funded research recently completed at REI and the University of Utah focused on characterizing impacts of high temperatures and pressures in oxy-coal combustion systems. For high pressure combustion, that research used a coal slurry feed into a 17 bar pressurized combustor. As a consequence of that research, it was identified that fuel feeding and firing system flexibility are challenges that require attention. Based on that experience, the approach of using a coal slurry feed system leads to challenges in producing consistent atomization of the slurry, which causes burnout problems, especially at high pressures. In addition, slurry atomization processes may be difficult to scale to sizes appropriate for practical commercial use. Dry pressurized coal burner systems, on the other hand, have the potential to yield efficiency gains, improve flexibility and facilitate applications at larger scales. Experimental work was conducted at the University of Utah Industrial Combustion and Gasification Research Facility as well as the 100 kW pressurized oxy-coal combustor (POC) facility at Brigham Young University. Mechanism development and CFD-based combustion and dense-phase flow modeling were performed at REI. Successful completion of the project objectives has resulted in the following key deliverables: 1) Design and prototype of a pressurized pulverized coal feeding and oxy-firing system 2) Data from a 100kW, pressurized (15 bar) entrained flow reactor with a dry feeding delivery and burner system that describes flame characteristics, radiative heat flux profiles, carbon burnout, along with characteristics of ash aerosols, fouling, and slagging. 3) Validated and transportable models that describe the relevant conditions in pressurized oxy-combustion systems and that can be used for scale-up and optimization. 4) Principles to guide design of high pressure, pilot-scale and full-scale coal oxy-firing systems. 5) Assessment of pressurized oxy-combustion impacts on key parameters relevant to oxy-coal fired utility boilers such as coal devolatilization, char oxidation, mineral matter transformation, deposition, and corrosion. The experimental data, pressurized oxy-firing system principles, and process mechanisms provided by this work can be used by electric utilities, boiler OEMs, equipment suppliers, design firms, software vendors, consultants and government agencies to assess the use of high temperature and high pressure oxy-combustion in current research and to guide development of new oxy-coal boiler designs.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2023

Milestone Report on Microstructure of Irradiated Sensors and Coupling Adhesive Bonds

This report describes the ORNL aspects of an NSUF project in collaboration between EPRI, ORNL, and NCSU. Preliminary characterizations at ORNL LAMDA laboratory on piezoelectric sensors and bonds before and after NCSU PULSTAR reactor irradiation. Five pre-irradiation and seven post-irradiation samples have been examined by scanning electron microscopy and related methods so far. Samples consisted of (Pb,Bi)(Sc,Ti)O 3 or LiNbO 3 ceramics. Bonding layers consisted of epoxy, zirconia, alumina, aluminosilicate, or a complex soda-lime type slurry.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Particle Separator for Improved Flameless Pressurized Oxy-Combustion

The team of Southwest Research Institute® (SwRI®), ITEA, Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI), and General Electric Global Research (GE) is advancing Flameless Pressurized Oxy-combustion (FPO), a novel coal technology. This effort seeks to develop a particle separator for the hot-gas stream leaving the FPO loop. In order to maximize the energy extracted from the cycle, the hot gas is put through a turbo-expander before flue-gas treatment. The particle separator designed under this project sought to operate at high temperature and with low-pressure drop, protecting the turbo-expander from erosion damage. The team engaged potential vendors for the test, developed plans for the pilot test loop modification, and refined requirements for the commercial turbo-expander.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2023

Refining Principal Stress Measurements in Reservoir Underburden in Regions of Induced Seismicity through Seismological Tools, Laboratory Experiments - Final Technical Report

This project developed methodologies to measure the in-situ principal stress in the deep subsurface through use of multiple independent, but complementary, seismic methods, laboratory verification, and development of theoretical frameworks. By leveraging existing regional and local datasets we developed, tested, and refined a set of diagnostic tools for determining the in-situ stress state with reduced uncertainty at and below reservoir depths (1.5-6 km). A set of novel tools was produced that are scale independent, such that their utility is equivalent on regional, field scale, and near borehole monitoring of principal stresses in reservoir underburden for carbon storage projects. During a 4-year Department of Energy (DOE) and Southern Company funded project, carried out by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), the University of Oklahoma (OU), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the project team developed methodologies to measure the far-field in-situ principal stress in the deep subsurface, leveraging induced seismicity data from waste-water disposal projects. These methodologies consisted in the use of well-established and technically advanced seismic processing methods, such as virtual seismometer method-moment tensor (VSM-MT) and shear wave splitting (SWS), that are adept at recovering the stress orientation and certain components of the stress tensor. These methods were applied to robust seismicity catalogs created with matched filter techniques near sites of active fluid disposal—a proxy for carbon storage sites where such datasets are more limited. Estimates of the stress orientation made with seismic processing tools were considered along with laboratory acoustic emission experiments conducted on rock samples from the region of interest. Stress orientations in the studied region do not vary significantly across distances of ~100 km, nor are they found to rotate through time as a consequence of local wastewater disposal, as previously speculated. Finally, the project team investigated the trade-offs among the different seismic methods and evaluated the range of uncertainty that is generated with these methodologies, which led to a practical use and refinement of the VSM-MT technique when it is applied to field datasets. Understanding the trade-offs between these different methods highlighted the potential benefits of improved quantification of uncertainties on stress field estimations.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗