Clean and Secure Energy from Coal - Final report, Utah Clean Coal Program

The University of Utah, through their Institute for Clean and Secure Energy (ICSE), performed research to utilize the vast energy stored in our domestic coal resources and to do so in a manner that will capture CO2 from combustion from stationary power generation. The research was organized around the theme of validation and uncertainty quantification (V/UQ) through tightly coupled simulation and experimental designs and through the integration of legal, environment, economics and policy issues. The project included the following tasks: • Oxy-Coal Combustion - To ultimately produce predictive capability with quantified uncertainty bounds for pilot-scale, single-burner, oxy-coal operation. • High-Pressure, Entrained-Flow Coal Gasification - To ultimately provide a simulation tool for industrial entrained-flow integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) gasifier with quantified uncertainty. • Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) - To develop a new carbon-capture technology for coal through CLC and to transfer this technology to industry through a numerical simulation tool with quantified uncertainty bounds. • Underground Coal Thermal Treatment - To explore the potential for creating new in-situ technologies for production of synthetic natural gas (SNG) from deep coal deposits and to demonstrate this in a new laboratory-scale reactor. • Mercury Control - To understand the effect of oxy-firing on the fate of mercury. • Environmental, Legal, and Policy Issues - To address the legal and policy issues associated with carbon management strategies in order to assess the appropriate role of these technologies in our evolving national energy portfolio. • Validation/Uncertainty Quantification for Large Eddy Simulations of the Heat Flux in the Tangentially Fired Oxy-Coal Alstom Boiler Simulation Facility - To produce predictive capability with quantified uncertainty bounds for the heat flux in commercial-scale, tangentially fired, oxy-coal boilers.