TVA's Proposed Laboratory-Scale Coal Combustor

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In the U.S., current economic conditions of recession, inflation, high-interest rates, and decreased energy use have created an unfavorable environment for conducting research and development activities that involve expenditures of capital monies. Although such a proposed project as described above may result in an economic savings, the availability of funds for such a project is limited. Despite the capital requirements for this project, the concept of constructing and operating a test facility to examine the effect of coal quality parameters upon the combustion process remains valid; and real economic benefits can be realized from the project. It seems reasonable that efforts be directed toward the acquisition of smaller combustion facilities (10-50 pounds per hour) instead of the larger (400 pounds per hour) system. We feel that a smaller facility should cost on the order of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000. The project would then be economically feasible even at a 0.5-percent reduction in the boiler deslagging FOR (from 7.04 to 7.00 percent) at Cumberland, to give an example. Therefore, to followup our pilot-scale combustor study, we plan to investi­gate the economic viability of a laboratory-scale combustor (10-50 pounds per hour) as an operational problem solving tool. 4-22