The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) has selected three additional projects to receive approximately $3.3 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development. These projects are supported through the funding opportunity announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0001728, Advanced Combustion Systems: Existing Plant Improvements and Transformational Technologies.

These projects, selected as part of FE’s Advanced Energy Systems program, will enable cost-competitive, coal-based power-generation systems. The selected projects will further the expanded use of coal, while also achieving near-zero pollutant emissions and improving the near- and long-term economics of these systems. The three new selections join nine other projects under this FOA that were chosen by FE in October 2017 to receive approximately $12 million. The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) will manage these additional projects described below:

1. Integrated Boiler Management through Advanced Condition Monitoring and Component Assessment – Electric Power Research Institute (Knoxville, TN) will develop and demonstrate an integrated boiler management system that incorporates high temperature, distributed fiber optic sensors, existing plant instrumentation, and an integrated creep-fatigue management system to provide near real-time determination of damage accumulation during flexible operation. This system may enhance the capability of proven creep/fatigue analysis methods by integrating distributed fiber optic sensing technology that will be adapted to boiler applications.

DOE Funding: $2,000,000; Non-DOE Funding: $500,000; Total Value: $2,500,000

2. Combustion Performance and Emissions Optimization through Integration of a Miniaturized High-Temperature Multi-Process Monitoring System – Reaction Engineering International (Murray, UT) will design, prototype, and demonstrate a monitoring system for boiler condition management. The key objectives are to miniaturize the design; combine quantitative heat flux, deposition rate, relative surface temperature, and metal wastage measurements into a single sensor; and integrate monitoring output with a plant distributed control system (DCS). The project will culminate with a demonstration and characterization of corrosion, deposition, heat flux, and temperature at multiple locations within a full-scale pulverized coal-fired power plant.

DOE Funding: $648,000; Non-DOE Funding: $162,000; Total Value: $810,000

3. Development of Miniaturized High-Temperature Multi-Process Monitoring System – Reaction Engineering International (Murray, UT) will design, prototype, and demonstrate a miniaturized monitoring system, which can provide a real-time indication of tube surface conditions at key locations in a coal combustion boiler. The prototype system will be tested in pilot-scale combustion environments, and advanced profilometry techniques will validate accuracy of the resulting corrosion data. The project will culminate with a system-level demonstration of the miniaturized, self-regulating sensors at a full-scale pulverized-coal-fired plant.

DOE Funding: $648,000; Non-DOE Funding: $162,000; Total Value: $810,000

The Office of Fossil Energy funds research and development projects to reduce the risk and cost of advanced fossil energy technologies and further the sustainable use of the Nation’s fossil resources. To learn more about the programs within the Office of Fossil Energy, visit the Office of Fossil Energy website or sign up for FE news announcements. More information about the National Energy Technology Laboratory is available on the NETL website.

Contact:

• Shelley Martin, DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory, 304-285-0228, contact.publicaffairs@netl.doe.gov