AndreaBozzo/ceres-open-data-index huggingface dataset:
Low cost hydrogen/novel membrane technology for hydrogen separation from synthesis gas

The production of hydrogen from synthesis gas made by gasification of coal is expensive. The separation of hydrogen from synthesis gas is a major cost element in the total process. In this report we describe the results of a program aimed at the development of membranes and membrane modules for the separation and purification of hydrogen from synthesis gas. The performance properties of the developed membranes were used in an economic evaluation of membrane gas separation systems in the coal gasification process. Membranes tested were polyetherimide and a polyamide copolymer. The work began with an examination of the chemical separations required to produce hydrogen from synthesis gas, identification of three specific separations where membranes might be applicable. A range of membrane fabrication techniques and module configurations were investigated to optimize the separation properties of the membrane materials. Parametric data obtained were used to develop the economic comparison of processes incorporating membranes with a base-case system without membranes. The computer calculations for the economic analysis were designed and executed. Finally, we briefly investigated alternative methods of performing the three separations in the production of hydrogen from synthesis gas. The three potential opportunities for membranes in the production of hydrogen from synthesis gas are: (1) separation of hydrogen from nitrogen as the final separation in a air-blown or oxygen-enriched air-blown gasification process, (2) separation of hydrogen from carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide to reduce or eliminate the conventional ethanolamine acid gas removal unit, and (3) separation of hydrogen and/or carbon dioxide form carbon monoxide prior to the shift reactor to influence the shift reaction. 28 refs., 54 figs., 40 tabs.

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Measurement and modeling of advanced coal conversion: Annual report, October 1, 1986-September 30, 1987

The overall objective of this program is the development of computer-aided reactor engineering technology for the design, scale up, simulation, control and feedstock evaluation in advanced coal conversion devices. This technology, based on a systematic database and reactor simulation software, is important to reduce the technical and economic risks inherent in utilizing coal, a feedstock whose variable and often unexpected behavior presents a significant challenge. The foundation to describe coal-specific conversion behavior will be AFR's Functional Group (FG) and Devolatilization, Vaporization, and Crosslinking (DVC) models, developed under previous and on-going METC sponsored programs. These models have demonstrated the capability to describe the time dependent evolution of individual gas species, and the amount and characteristics of tar and char. The FG/DVC models will be integrated with BYU's comprehensive two-dimensional reactor model, PCGC-2, which is currently the most widely used reactor simulation for combustion or gasification. The program includes: (1) validation of the submodels by comparison with laboratory data obtained in this program, (2) extensive validation of the modified comprehensive code by comparison of predicted results with data from bench-scale and process scale investigations of gasification, mild gasification and combustion of coal or coal-derived products in heat engines, and (3) development of well documented user friendly software applicable to a ''workstation''environment. Success in this program will be a major step in improving the predictive capabilities for coal conversion processes including: demonstrated accuracy and reliability and a generalized ''first principles''treatment of coals based on readily obtained composition data.

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An evaluation of some innovative fragmentation systems for oil shale

This report describes a large-scale underground mining method, large-hole stoping, using some innovative fragmentation systems (buffer blasting, continuous loading/hauling, and mechanical miners for development). This study includes a literature review and an experimental study of one of the key design factors--buffer blasting. The purpose of the buffer-blasting experiments is to examine the swell that is necessary to achieve satisfactory fragmentation results. The study also includes a technical and economic evaluation of the new mining method compared with conventional room and pillar mining. The purpose of this study is to examine innovative methods that exist today and may provide a more efficient mining system than that currently used. Note that this is a conceptual study, and that the mining for the two mine designs were compared using a daily production rate of 75,000 tones per day. This amount was chosen because it is the maximum amount possible for a rubber-tired room and pillar operation with only a one-shaft complex.

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The mobile phase in coals: Its nature and modes of release: Final report: Part 1, Structural inferences from dry catalytic hydrogenation of a subbituminous coal

In a study to provide insight into the two component structural model of coal and the mechanisms of coal liquefaction, an approach was adopted in which a subbituminous coal was reacted with hydrogen in the presence of an impregnated molybdenum sulphide catalyst and in the absence of solvent. Reactions were conducted at temperatures between 300 and 400/sup 0/C and for reaction times up to 180 min. The composition and yields of gaseous products, chloroform-soluble liquids and insoluble residues were followed as a function of the reaction conditions by means of different analytical and characterization techniques: gas chromatography; /sup 1/H NMR; elemental analysis; FTIR; solvent swelling in pyridine. 105 refs., 20 figs., 12 tabs.

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Automated microscopy methods for measuring pyritic sulfur content of coal and determining degree of liberation of pyrite in coal: Final report

The objective of this project is to develop an automated procedure, to be implemented in an IBAS image analyzer, to determine size, shape and degree of liberation of pyrite particles in a coal matrix. This procedure is to work in real time conditions and with minimal intervention from the operator. Our approach is to create from the original microscopic image a three level image with the following components: epoxy, coal materials and pyrite to simplify the calculations. Enhancing the original image by histogram scaling and median filtering, we segment it and form the three level image. After the boundaries of the pyrite particles are defined, we mask the surroundings of the particle to estimate the degree of liberation. The percentage of epoxy included in the mask is defined as the degree of liberation of the particle. Size and shape factor values are simultaneously calculated for each of the analyzed particles. These particles are classified according to their maximum diameter, shape factor and degree of liberation by the program. 6 refs., 18 figs.

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Granular bed filter development program:  Phase II. Quarterly report for July-September 1981

The US DOE is sponsoring a multiphase program to investigate the filtration potential of the moving bed granular filter (GBF) for application in pressurized high temperature energy conversion systems. The objectives of Phase II of the program are to investigate the effects of elevated temperature and coal combustion particulate on GBF filtration performance; to continue development of the analytical model to reflect the high temperature effects; to optimize filter internal configuration; to perform parametric and long duration tests to characterize the effects of filter design improvements on filtration efficiencies; and to conduct an economic analysis of full scale filters for PFB service. A secondary objective is to evaluate the effect of combustion additives in reducing the alkali concentration in the outlet from the GBF. Earlier Phase II hot flow testing confirmed that the original GBF design incorporating inlet and outlet screens exhibited a tendency for extensive and irreversible ash plugging. That has lead to an alternate design of the GBF internals which eliminated the inlet and outlet screens. This screenless GBF has undergone cold and hot flow tests with collection efficiencies equal to the screened GBF and without ash plugging problems. All current development work under Phase II objectives is being carried out using the screenless configuration. The work accomplished in the development of the three-dimensional axisymmetrical model, the hot flow test set-up and the particulate and alkali sampling equipment and procedures, the test plan for hot flow testing, and the results of system checkout following equipment modifications are discussed.

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BOAST II: A three-dimensional, three-phase black oil applied simulation tool. [BOAST II - Three Phase Black Oil]

A Three-Dimensional, Three-Phase Black Oil Applied Simulation Tool (BOAST) (Version 1.1) was released by the Department of Energy in the fall of 1982. This program has been extensively used by various research, academic, and industry organizations. BOAST has proven to be popular because it is very easy to use and is not burdened by seldom-used features which complicate and slow the execution of the program. It has even been successfully used on disk-top computers. In spite of its wide-scale use, complications have developed in some applications. Most of the problems have occurred when the program was used for field-scale conditions where it was not suitable in its original form. BOAST II was developed to overcome some of the limitations of the original BOAST. The main thrust has been to keep the program uncomplicated and easy to use, yet add features which would improve its versatility. The amount of the code in BOAST II is roughly three times that of the original BOAST. This report discusses the major enhancements of BOAST II related to the original BOAST.

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A systematic procedure for reservoir characterization: Annual report for the period October 1, 1985-September 30, 1986

This report deals with a variety of topics all centered around the main goal of making numerical reservoir simulation results conform more closely with geologic descriptions. The first part of the report discusses results on conditional simulations of miscible displacements in randomly heterogeneous permeable media. The focus here is on local or macroscopic dispersion, the dispersion experienced at a fixed point in the medium. Macroscopic dispersivity has many of the same dependencies on reservoir properties as does megascopic dispersivity, but it seems to be less time dependent and is always smaller. We have not discovered a mathematical model to describe its behavior. A major portion of the report deals with statistical descriptions. We investigate the bias and precision of standard measures of heterogeneity, the Lorenz and Dykstra-Parsons coefficient. After this, the work explores the benefits of using a distribution type characterization parameter in exploring heterogeneity. The final major protion of the report describes our mapping efforts on the Page sandstone outcrop in northern Arizona. The mapping is to be used in generating both deterministic descriptions and in calibrating the stochastic descriptions discussed above. 128 refs., 95 figs., 10 tabs.

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Report to Congress on emerging clean coal technologies

Section 321 of the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 1985 as enacted by House Joint Resolution 648, Public Law 98-473, 98 Stat. 1874, directed the Secretary of Energy to solicit from the private sector ''statements of interest in, and proposals for projects employing emerging clean coal technologies,''to analyze the submissions, and to submit a Report to Congress that ''assesses the potential usefulness of each emerging clean coal technology''and ''identifies the extent to which federal incentives, including financial assistance, will accelerate the commercial availability of these technologies.''Responsibility for implementation of Section 321 was delegated to the Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy. The Office of Fossil Energy drafted the Program Announcement, arranged the mechanics of submission handling, storage, and disposal, and provided for submission analysis and writing of this Report. As expected the Program Announcement elicited a voluminous response, and many of the submissions contained proprietary or business confidential material. The assessments, included in Appendix C, provide information on what each technology is and how it works, the Department and private sector research, development, and demonstration programs, and on its anticipated environmental performance, economics, and their potential usefulness. After review of the submittals, the Department has concluded that federal incentives will not accelerate commercialization of these technologies and may be counterproductive to their development. These conclusions are based upon the Department's previous experiences with federal incentives.

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Experimental evaluation of the steady state and dynamic performance characteristics of the interactive units of a coal gasification process. Quarterly report, 27 September 1982-26 December 1982

Coal gasification/gas cleanup fuels plants for synthetic fuel applications must be developed within two sets of constraints: one imposed by dynamic load response to variations in end-use demand, the other by the need to comply with environmental regulations. The overall objective of the program is to establish the technology base required to operate within those constraints. In order to establish that base, system and component performance of the fuels plant are being characterized in both steady state and dynamic operation; and the information required to establish system control logic is being developed. An integrated coal gasification system composed of proven process units (i.e., a Process Evaluation Facility - PEF) at the contractor's site is being used to perform tests for establishing an information base to: establish performance parameters for each process unit; define dynamic interactions of process units operating under variable loads; characterize effluent flow streams from the process; and develop an experimentally verified simulation model for integrated system operations. The combined experimental-analytical approach employed will yield empirically verified performance projections for full-scale systems. Accomplishments for this past quarter are presented for the following six tasks: (1) test program definition and analysis; (2) facility operation; (3) system modeling; (4) component support requirements; (5) fuel system modifications; and (6) program management.

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Advanced gasification projects

This report describes the results and accomplishments of the Morgantown Energy Technology Center's (METC) research and development program in surface coal gasification from October 1, 1981, to September 30, 1982. The primary goal of the program is to advance surface coal gasification technology through basic, exploratory, and applied research and development activities at various research organizations in the private and public sectors. The major thrust of the program is the advancement of a fundamental scientific and engineering data base to provide innovative concepts and ideas for coal gasification and associated technologies. The objectives of the program are: to derive new fundamental information and concepts about coal structure and the physical and chemical mechanisms whereby these structures undergo devolatilization and gasification; to examine innovative concepts for improved efficiency and economics of chemical and physical methods of gas separation and treatment to remove undesired components and recover pure gaseous components; and to develop mathematical models, based on fundamental principles, that can be used to predict and simulate behavior of gasification and other subsystems under new conditions.

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Enhanced oil recovery through in-situ generated surfactants augmented by chemical injection

Both experimental and theoretical studies are conducted to advance understanding and predictability in the successful application of the combined surfactant-alkali-polymer flooding for tertiary oil recovery. During this past year, experimental studies on the system chemistry were made on alkaline/acidic oil systems with and without added surfactant and/or cosurfactant. The acid was found to play a major role in the lowering of the interfacial tension in these systems. An interferometric technique was used to observe the presence of ordered structures inside stratifying films formed from micellar solutions of anionic surfactants and other colloidal suspensions. The structural component of the disjoining pressure in thin films with micellar structure, which gives rise to an increased stability in emulsions, foams and colloidal suspensions, has been calculated for the first time. A novel technique for measuring the dilatational viscosity at both the gas-liquid and liquid-liquid interfaces is developed. The measured interfacial dilatational viscosities correlate directly with emulsion and foam stability experiments. 119 refs., 50 figs., 25 tabs.

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In-situ measurement of particulate in turbulent duct flows. Final report

Experiments were conducted using straight sampling probes to determine the errors in measuring the concentration of particulate in a flowing gas stream using non-isokinetic aspiration rates. The experiments were done in a 100 mm (4-in.) I.D. round pipe using a dual probe arrangement to obtain simultaneous measurements of the concentration under isokinetic and non-isokinetic conditions. Monodisperse aerosols were generated using glass beads in size ranges characterized by mass mean diameters of 3.0, 5.3, and 7.4 microns. Corresponding Stokes numbers varied in the range from 0.02 to 0.24 for probes having internal diameters of 10.9 and 6.1 mm. The trends in the experimental data are in general agreement with the data for higher Stokes numbers reported previously in the literature and the results of a numerical analysis of aspiration flow into a thin-walled tube. Negligible differences were observed in the sampling accuracy when the probes were moved from the 0.50 to the 0.75 dimensionless radial location off the centerline of the test section. Effects due to the thickness of the sampling probes were observed for all tests with the general result that the concentration measurement was lower in value as the thickness of the probe was increased. Deposition on the probe tip and within the body of the probe accounted for a major portion of the losses in the sample train.

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Advanced Thermionic Technology Program: summary report. Volume 3. Final report

This report summarizes the progress made by the Advanced Thermionic Technology Program during the past several years. This Program, sponsored by the US Department of Energy, has had as its goal adapting thermionic devices to generate electricity in a terrestrial (i.e., combustion) environment. Volume 3 (Part D) contains the results of systems studies of primary interest to those involved in identifying and evaluating applications for thermionics. As a general rule of thumb, cogeneration technologies are most attractive to industries when those technologies naturally produce a ration of electrical to thermal output which closely matches the demand within the industrial facilities themselves. Several of the industries which consume the largest amounts of energy have an electrical-to-thermal ratio of about ten percent, as can be seen in Exhibit D-1.1. This closely matches the electrical efficiency of thermionic converters. Thermionic cogeneration has several other unique advantages relative to alternative technologies for cogeneration which should lead to a much broader application of cogeneration in industry. These advantages accrue from the much higher temperatures at which thermionic energy conversion takes place, its suitability for very small as well as large process heaters, and, of course, its production of direct heat rather than process steam. In fact, thermionics can even be coupled to more conventional cogeneration technologies (e.g., steam turbines) to extend their applicability to processes requiring a greater electrical-to-thermal ratio than either cogeneration technology alone can provide. Several examples of thermionic cogeneration are presented in greater detail: copper refining by the Noranda process; thermionic topping cycles for gas turbine; and combined cycle and fossil-fuel steam power plants. 13 refs., 71 figs.

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Low-rank coal research. Quarterly technical progress report, April-June 1985

The formation of 5,5-dimethylhydantoin (DMH) in gasification wastewater has been found to be first order with respect to all individual reactants (acetone, cyanide, ammonia, carbon dioxide). However, the mechanism for the formation of these compounds is not known. Activated sludge treated stripped gas liquor from the Great Plains Gasification Plant was treated by the nitrification and denitrification processes using process development unit scale reactors. A series of thermogravimetric analysis tests were conducted to evaluate the effect of variable Na/sub 2/CO/sub 3/ catalyst loading and compare reactivity as a function of coal rank. These tests confirmed that low-rank coals are nearly an order of magnitude more reactive than coals of higher rank in steam gasification. UNDERC's 2.5-ton/day hydrothermal Process Development Unit (PDU) was used to process North Dakota and Texas lignite. Vendor-assisted fine coal slurry concentration studies were completed, and the results identified the continuous solid bowl centrifuge as the best piece of commercially available equipment for use in UNDERC's hydrothermal PDU. Due to poor ''clean''product recovery, insufficient ash reduction, and low kerosene recovery (20 to 30%), the use of oil agglomeration does not appear to be a viable cleaning technique for the four western coals (Indian Head, Navajo, Martin Lake, and Eagle Butte) evaluated. The molecular weights of coal fractions were measured by low-angle laser light scattering. Indian Head (N.D.) lignite was extracted with n-heptane, n-octane, cyclohexane, and benzene under supercritical conditions.

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Chemical and toxicological characterization of Morgantown Energy Technology Center fixed-bed gasifier condensates, topical report

Argonne National Laboratory has been evaluating the health and environmental effects of emerging coal-gasification technologies. Representative condensates from the Morgantown Energy Technology Center's fixed-bed gasifier were characterized using advanced techniques, including fractionation, toxicological testing, and computer-assisted instrumental analysis. The samples were a heavy tar from a bituminous coal run (BHT), a composite side-stream tar (CST), an oxygen-blown side-stream condensate (OBS), and an air-blown composite (ABC). Neutral components accounted for most of the mass and much of the mutagenicity. Neutral fractions of the ABC, CST, and OBS samples were very similar, while that of the BHT sample was enriched in high-ring-number polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Basic components accounted for a very small part of the mass, but for much of the mutagenicity. Basic nitrogen-heterocyclic PAH greatly predominated over the primary aromatic amines. Acidic components accounted for an important part of the mass, but for negligible mutagenicity, except for the BHT sample. The acid fraction of the OBS sample consisted mainly of one- or two-ring phenolic materials, whereas that of the BHT sample consisted of a broad range of hydroxy-aromatics having three to four rings. Mammalian-cell mutagenic activity was observed in the BHT sample after removal of acidic components.

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