Utah Clean Coal Center: Gasification research activities

The Utah Clean Coal Center (UC3) was established at the University of Utah through a cooperative agreement from the U.S. DOE / NETL. The center had five thrust areas critical for successful development of advanced technologies for power production from coal with minimal environmental impact. One of these areas was gasification, and it was decided to focus specifically on pressurized, oxygen-blown gasification. The overall, long-term research approach combines (1) development of an advanced computational simulation tool with (2) lab-scale experiments on fundamental processes taking place in a gasifier and (3) operation of an industrially representative, small pilot scale gasifier. Under the UC3 program, experimental work was performed at the University of Utah and Brigham Young University focused on pressurized pyrolysis of coal, production and reaction of soot, transition from char to slag and deposition of coal ash onto surfaces. This report describes results from these studies and initial development of a computational model which will be used for simulation of entrained-flow coal gasifiers.