AndreaBozzo/ceres-open-data-index huggingface dataset:
Mathematical modeling of METC flash carbonization data

This study was conducted for the Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC) to analyze and correlate its data on flash carbonization of coal. Mathematical models were formulated to simulate the downflow co-current flash carbonizer. Various rate expressions on the pyrolysis of coal were tested and compared with the experimental data. Although the rate expression on coal carbonization, based on Wen et al., seemed to fit the data better than that based on Badzioch and Hawksley, neither of them could predict the effect of pressure. In addition, two rate expressions were formulated to account for the pressure effect and were tested against the data from METC as well as against two other sets of published data. The result indicated that these expressions could predict the trends of the data, but there were still considerable discrepancies from the experimental data. One of the reasons was due to the inconsistency and inaccuracy of the experimental data. Additional work to obtain more reliable data is indicated for improvement of rate expressions in flash coal carbonization.

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Factors affecting future expansion of the coal transportation network:  legal and institutional constraints on accelerated coal freight. [52 references]

This Department of Energy publication considers those factors which will determine the ability of the railroads, water carriers, coal slurry pipelines, high voltage electrical transmission lines, and truck movements to meet increasing demands for coal hauling capacity. The aim of this publication is to identify the major legal and institutional constraints confronting the coal haulers such that their resolution will result in expedient and economic transportation of coal to market.

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Management of coal waste by energy recovery: mild gasification/flash pyrolysis of coal preparation wastes. Quarterly report, January-March 1986

Construction continued on the Mild Gasification Unit, MGU, with the addition of the vacuum pump. The MGU can now be operated under vacuum conditions. Modifications were made to the reactor tube packing box after leaks were discovered around the old packing boxes. The new packing box is taller and wider than the old packing box allowing more effective packing. Preliminary testing shows a good vacuum seal is obtained with the modified packing box. Eight tests were conducted on the MGU. Each of the eight tests were considered a shakedown test. A variety of reactor tube configurations, condensing systems, and operating conditions were tested. It was found that operating under vacuum conditions improved the quality of liquids. Also, it was found that coal residence times can be significantly reduced by operating at increased furnace temperatures. The MGU has performed well with no major problems. The only significant problem encountered to date has been effective condensation of the hydrocarbon gases. Continuing efforts are being made toward improving the condensation system on the MGU.

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Advanced coal-fueled gas turbine systems

This is the second annual technical progress report for the Advanced Coal-Fueled Gas Turbine Systems Program. This program was initiated by the Department of Energy as an R D effort to establish the technology base for the commercial application of direct coal-fired gas turbines. The combustion system under consideration incorporates a modular three-stage slagging combustor concept. Fuel-rich conditions inhibit NO{sub x} formation from fuel nitrogen in the first stage; coal ash and sulfur are subsequently removed from the combustion by an impact separator in the second stage. Final oxidation of the fuel-rich gases, and dilution to achieve the desired turbine inlet conditions are accomplished in the third stage. During the period covered by this annual report, the combustor was operated for the first time. This unit is the subscale slagging combustor designed specifically for this program. In steady operation during the succeeding months, this apparatus demonstrated excellent performance, as will be described in this report. 50 figs., 11 tabs.

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Hydrate resource assessment of the North Slope of Alaska: Technical note

This study was initiated to assess the gas hydrate potential of Alaska's North Slope. All current data for wells existing between depths of 300 and 5000 feet in the Petroleum Information, Inc., North Slope Well File (NSWF) were used; 96 wells of the 668 wells in the NSWF fit this requirement. The data included gamma ray, SP, resistivity, sonic, caliper, and temperature logs; lithological sections and drill core analyses that were correlated to seismic sections; sand shale ratio maps; and permafrost structure and hydrocarbon source-rock analyses. The areas identified as containing possible hydrate deposits are Point Barrow, Kuparuk River, Prudhoe Bay Field, Cape Simpson, and Cape Thompson. Based on the work completed to determine the gas potential in-place and based on the geology and reservoir characteristics of the rocks in the hydrate stability zone (HSZ), it is estimated that a significant volume of gas hydrates may exist in the Tertiary-age Saganvanirktok Formation, and the Cretaceous-age Colville and Nanushuk groups. 7 refs., 16 figs.

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Modeling and laboratory studies of electrolinking: Final report

Dielectric breakdown (DEB) front propagation in solids is studied through asymptotic analysis and laboratory simulation. This phenomenon occurs in electrolinking, a process used to enhance coal permeability prior to underground coal gasification. An analytical model describing the propagation of a planar DEB front has been developed using the technique of matched asymptotic expansions. Simple expressions are derived which relate the propagation speed and temperature of the DEB front to the current density, physical properties of the medium, and process parameters. These expressions are than used to predict the electrolinking energy requirement. The model predictions were validated with laboratory experiments on solid samples of an Illinois Basin bituminous coal from the Herrin No. 6 seam. The propagation of electrolinks were monitored noninvasively during these experiments using infrared thermography. The effects of electrode diameter, electrode geometry, moisture, and saline solution injection on the size, propagation speed, and number of electrolinks were investigated. Only one electrolink was initiated when small electrodes were used. Multiple links were initiated when large electrodes were used. Higher voltages were required to electrolink dry coal samples than wet samples. Faster link propagation was observed when tap-water-saturated samples were substituted with 0.1 M KCl saturated coal samples. The electrolinked coal samples were examined for structural changes using scanning electron microscopy. These modeling and laboratory studies indicate that the reliability and economics of electrolinking can be improved by concentrating the current with shaped electrodes and by reducing the coal resistivity by injecting saline solutions. 65 refs., 40 figs., 9 tabs.

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Expansion of high-temperature, high-pressure data set for coal gasification: Final report

Although synthetic fuel technologies have been the subject of many investigations over the last several decades and important advances have been made in this technology, it is still not an economical source of energy. To advance synthetic fuel technology into a more feasible and economically compatible technology, further understanding of reaction mechanisms and product formation in relation to processing condition is essential. Pyrolysis is a key element in nearly all coal conversion processes. This is the first step in gasification, the step which controls the production of tar, char and volatile gases, the chemical composition of these products, and the physical structure and reactivity of the chars. Therefore, to advance gasification technologies, data are needed on the effect of coal properties and operating variables during the devolatilization processes, especially at high-temperature and high-pressure conditions using an entrained-flow technique. To obtain data and meaningful detailed information in the area of high-temperature, high-pressure coal devolatilization in an entrained-flow reactor, a comprehensive study was conducted using samples of Montana Rosebud subbituminous and Illinois No. 6 bituminous coals. Although there are several independent variables that affect product yields and compositions, it was impractical to systematically investigate them all. Therefore, the scope of this study was limited to only two of the variables, pressure and residence time. The other variables, such as temperature, particle heating rate, particle size, coal type, etc., were held as uniform as possible throughout the study. All the data reported here were obtained in inert atmosphere of nitrogen. 118 figs., 30 tabs.

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Lockhopper valve and system design criteria and guidelines for coal conversion and utilization applications

This document was prepared as a guide to plant designers and operators to assist in the design and selection of lockhopper valve systems for commercial coal conversion (gasification and indirect liquefaction) and utilization (pressurized fluidized-bed combustion) plants. It should also be of value to valve manufacturers in their design and development efforts. Responses are requested to make revisions of the document more closely fulfill needs. Please contact any of the listed METC personnel with any and all comments, requests, suggestions, or critiques.

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Design, construction, operation and evaluation of a prototype culm combustion boiler/heater unit. Quarterly technical progress report, April 1-June 30, 1982

This report provides a summary of the work performed on the prototype Culm Combustion Boiler/Heater Unit, Phase I - Engineering Design and Analysis, Phase II - Prototype Plant Construction and Phase III - Start-Up and Operation during the period April 1, 1982 through June 30, 1982. The objectives of the program as well as the technical progress and problem areas encountered during the reporting period are presented. The Parametric Test Program was resumed in April and completed during this report period. A total of 17 parametric test points have now been completed. During severe weather conditions (heavy rain), temporary delays were encountered due to the inability to crush sufficient amounts of culm for individual test points. Upon completion of the scheduled facility shutdown for maintenance, as discussed in the last report, the plant was restarted on April 5, 1982. Total operating time through the end of this quarter - 4272 hours, 29 minutes; operating time on culm/limestone and culm - 3379 hours, 15 minutes. Plant operating time during this report period - 1642 hours, 30 minutes with an operational running factor of 98.1% achieved during the month of June. Steam was delivered to the user (Cellu products) during this time to generate steam revenue. Data obtained during the Parametric Test Program was recorded on magnetic tape and this data was forwarded to DOE for their analysis.

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Methane drainage with horizontal boreholes in advance of longwall mining:  an analysis. Final report

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Morgantown Energy Technology Center has implemented a comprehensive program to demonstrate the technical and economic viability of coalbed methane as an energy resource. The program is directed toward solution of technical and institutional problems impeding the recovery and use of large quantities of methane contained in the nation's minable and unminable coalbeds. Conducted in direct support of the DOE Methane Recovery from Coalbeds Project, this study analyzes the economic aspects of a horizontal borehole methane recovery system integrated as part of a longwall mine operation. It establishes relationships between methane selling price and annual mine production, methane production rate, and the methane drainage system capital investment. Results are encouraging, indicating that an annual coal production increase of approximately eight percent would offset all associated drainage costs over the range of methane production rates and capital investments considered.

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Project evaluation:  Penn Grade Micellar Displacement Project

The Penn Grade Micellar Displacement Project tested the micellar/polymer flooding process in a low permeability portion of the Bradford Third Sand reservoir. This test, herein referred to as the Lawry Test, followed the successful test of the micellar/polymer flooding process in a higher permeability portion of the Bradford Third Sand reservoir (Bingham Test). The Lawry Test failed technically and economically as an oil recovery process. Total oil recovery amounted to about 5.2% of the oil-in-place at the time of micellar injection. Project failure did not appear to be the reusult of poor operational practice. Project participants recognized the difficulty of applying the micellar/polymer process in such a low permeability reservoir at the initiation of the project. Nevertheless, the large reserve of oil trapped within the low permeability portions of the Bradford Field made the project attractive. There appeared to be three major reasons for project failure: (1) reservoir heterogeneity; (2) adverse ion exchange phenomena; and (3) high sulfonate loss. Data from Phase I testing, injection well tracer surveys, injection well logging, produced chloride concentrations and the Phase II evaluation well confirmed that only a small portion of the Lawry pilot was contacted by injected fluids. Produced salinity and hardness levels suggested the occurrence of adverse ion exchange phenomena. Adverse ion exchange behavior would be expected to have resulted in severe sulfonate loss, and low oil recovery. Additional data are needed to confirm this conclusion. In addition, injectivity was low throughout the project. In the absence of the above problems, it is likely that the process would not be practical in areas typical of Lawry because of low injectivity. 10 references, 12 figures, 12 tables.

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Analysis of unit mobility ratio well-to-well tracer flow to determine reservoir heterogeneity

This study has been carried out in two related sections. In the first section, exact analytic equations have been derived to define breakthrough curves for different developed flooding well patterns for unit mobility ratio. The first section also includes an extension of an analytical definition of pattern breakthrough curves for mobility ratio other than one. The second part discusses flow of a tracer slug in various patterns. In each system, the longitudinal mixing of the tracer slug in a general streamtube of the pattern has been formulated mathematically. A line integral along a streamtube was derived which represents the length of the mixed zone. When this line integral was substituted into the mixing equation, an expression for the concentration of tracer at any location within a streamtube resulted. The study shows that the effluent tracer concentration depends upon the pattern geometry and size, and the dispersion constant of the formation. Tracer production curves for the different patterns considered have also been correlated into a set of curves depending on a/..cap alpha.., (a = distance between like wells, ..cap alpha.. = dispersion constant). The correlation was achieved by deriving two sets of correction factors, one for tracer peak concentration, and another for a/..cap alpha.. ratio. As a result of this correlation, a tracer response from any repeated homogeneous pattern can be estimated from the response of an equivalent five-spot system by utilizing the correction factors. A computer program based on a non-linear optimization technique was developed which decomposes a detected tracer breakthrough profile from a multilayered system into responses from individual layers. The algorithm utilizes the equations of the five-spot pattern in conjunction with the developed correction factors. A five-spot field example which has been successfully decomposed into several layers is shown to illustrate the use of this research. 42 figures, 15 tables.

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Alkali species characterization for coal-fueled gas turbine: Final report

A key factor in the direct use of coal in gas turbines is the behavior of ash. Advanced coal cleaning processes will reduce ash levels of the order of 0.2 to 1%, which are substantially higher than for crude or residual oils. Perhaps, even of greater concern are the alkali metals, which have been directly implicated in corrosion and deposition enhancement for petroleum fuels. The objective of the program described in this report was to experimentally examine the transformation of ash, and in particular, alkali metals during combustion and deposition in gas turbine environments, and to examine the effect of these transformations on deposition rates and deposit character. It is likely that the coal cleaning method will have a major effect on the composition of the CWM ash. Thus CWM fuels prepared by physical cleaning and by chemical leaching were investigated. Ash transformation experiments yielded key information regarding the corrosive and erosive behavior of CWM fuels. Ash particles, which were in the submicron range, also are not expected to be erosive because of their small size. Thus it can be concluded that erosion for these CWM fuels that contain coal particles a few microns in diameter will be minimal as long as good fuel atomization is achieved. In summary, it has been shown that alkali behavior for coal fuels is unlike that for petroleum fuels. The presence of aluminosilicates in coal ash inhibits the formation of corrosive alkali sulfates. This also affects deposition rates by eliminating the presence of deposition ''glues.''Coal ash deposits, however, are hard and adherent, and are cleaned with difficulty. Because of the small size of the ash particles and the buoyancy of any carbonaceous cenospheres, erosion is not expected to be a significant issue with micronized CWM fuels. 41 refs., 29 figs., 6 tabs.

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Chemical and bioassay characterizations of sludge and wastewater from fixed bed UNDERC coal gasification: Final report

The objective of this research is to evaluate the influence of eight preselected treatment trains for fixed bed coal gasification wastewater treatment on chemical and health effects of residual sludges, sludge leachates, partially treated wastewaters and cooling towers blowdowns. Independent variables were: (1) incorporation of solvent extraction, use of MIBK or DIPE as extractant, solvent/wastewater ratio; (2) incorporation of free with/without fixed ammonia stripping; (3) incorporation of biological activated sludge processing; (4) cooling towers evaporation at ten cycles of concentration. Residual sludges, cooling tower blowdowns, ashed blowdowns and evaporate organics were leached in accord with the ASTM-A (distilled/deionized water), EPA-''EP''(acetic acid), and a self designed technique (pH=2 using HNO/sub 3/ at a 20/1 liquid/solids ratio). Leachates were evaluated for heavy metal content, Daphnia magna toxicity, bioaccumulative potentials and AMES mutagenicity potentials.

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Design of gasifiers to optimize fuel cell systems

Phase 1 of Task 4 was concluded this quarter with the TGA testing of Illinois No. 6 coal impregnated with calcium, iron and potassium as gasification catalysts. The TGA tests using a dry and impregnated catalyst are designed to compare reactivities using Illinois No. 6 coal. In all cases the molar equivalent ratio of catalyst to fixed carbon was 0.12, so that for K[sup  ] the molar ratio was K/FC = 0.12, for Ca[sup   ] = 0.06, and for Fe[sup    ] = 0.04 mols/mol. In this way the active sites on the coal structure ([minus]COO[sup [minus]]) are exposed to the same number of possible connections with mobile cations regardless of the choice of metallic element. The TGA tests used both a dry and impregnated form of each catalyst at temperatures ranging from 700[degree] to 800[degree]C. The overall reactivities obtained in from the TGA data, shown in Figure 1 and listed in Table 1, reveal that taconite alone, dry or impregnated, provides essentially no catalytic activity. Impregnated calcium provides some improvement in reactivity as compared with.dry limestone and taconite however this improvement is insignificant in comparison to the high reactivities obtained with a potassium catalyst (dry or impregnated). As stated last quarter, the negligible difference in reactivities of wood ash leachate and K[sub 2]CO[sub 3] indicate that the potassium is as mobile dry as it is impregnated and therefore its chemical form is not a crucial issue. These results will be used to modify the second phase of the experimental studies test plan.

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Kinetics of coal gasification reactions at process conditions. Final technical report

An entire fixed bed coal gasification reactor is suspended from a large analytical balance for thermogravimetric measurement of the reaction rate. This thermobalance has advantages over the hanging basket types in that sample size can be larger, thermocouples can be embedded directly in the reacting bed, and there is more control over extraparticle mass transfer resistance. Steam gasification of a North Dakota lignitic coal was studied at pressures from 20 to 33 atmospheres and temperatures from 720 to 900/sup 0/C. The observed reaction order was close to one. The gasification rates were essentially independent of the measured temperature. The suggested explanation for this behavior was that the particles act collectively, giving a large resistance to mass and heat transport. The reaction took place under a strong diffusional control. Gas chromatographic analysis of the products indicated that the carbon-steam reaction is the principal gasification mechanism. Steam was in excess, and the products underwent the water-gas shift reaction. Hydrogasification studies were complicated by the observation of an ignition phenomena in the coal bed when the exothermic heat of reaction could not be removed fast enough. An expression for the temperature dependence of the reaction rate was determined. 6 references, 28 figures, 9 tables.

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Cleanup/stimulation of a horizontal wellbore using propellants

This report documents the stimulation/cleanup of a horizontal well bore (Wilson 25) using propellants. The Wilson 25 is a Bartlesville Sand well located in the Flatrock Field, Osage County, Oklahoma. The Wilson 25 was drilled to determine if horizontal drilling could be used as a means to economically recover primary oil that had been left in place in a mostly abandoned oil field because of the adverse effects of water coning. Pump testing of the Wilson 25 horizontal well bore before cleanup or stimulation produced 6 barrels of oil and .84 barrels of water per day. The high percentage of daily oil production to total daily fluid production indicated that the horizontal well bore had accessed potentially economical oil reserves if the fluid production rate could be increased by performing a cleanup/stimulation treatment. Propellants were selected as an inexpensive means to stimulate and cleanup the near well bore area in a uniform manner. The ignition of a propellant creates a large volume of gas which penetrates the formation, creating numerous short cracks through which hydrocarbons can travel into the well bore. More conventional stimulation/cleanup techniques were either significantly more expensive, less likely to treat uniformly, or could not be confined to the near well bore area. Three different propellant torpedo designs were tested with a total of 304'of horizontal well bore being shot and producible. The initial test shot caused 400'of the horizontal well bore to become plugged off, and subsequently it could not be production tested. The second and third test shots were production tested, with the oil production being increased 458% and 349%, respectively, on a per foot basis. The Wilson 25 results indicate that a propellant shot treatment is an economically viable means to cleanup/stimulate a horizontal well bore.

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