ENHANCED COAL COMMINUTION AND CLEANING USING SPARK-GENERATEDFOCUSED SHOCKS

ONE OF THE MANY WAYS OF USING COAL AS A FUEL FOR GENERATING ELECTRIC POWER IS TO PULVERIZE IT INTO A VERY FINE SIZE (2-20 MICRONS) AND MIX IT WITH A LIQUID CARRIER SUCH AS WATER. THE RESULTING SLURRY CAN BE TRANSPORTED THROUGH A PIPELINE AND INJECTED DIRECTLY INTO A BOILER FOR COMBUSTION. PULVERIZING COAL INTO A FINE POWDER LEADS TO GREATER ASH REJECTION LEVELS AND THEREFORE TO CLEANER COAL. THIS PROJECT PROVIDES A NEW APPROACH TO COAL COMMINUTION BY USING HIGH ENERGY ELECTRIC SPARKS IN WATER TO GENERATE SHOCK WAVES THAT FRACTURE AND PULVERIZE THE COAL. SPECIFIC EXPERIMENTS WILL BE CONDUCTED ON AN EXISTING PULSED POWER FACILITY, DEVELOPED UNDER SEPARATE FUNDING FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COAL PULVERIZATION PROCESS USING THE ELECTROHYDRAULIC EFFECT. WORK WILL BE DONE WITH THE NEW MEXICO INSTITUTE OF MINING TECHNOLOGY IN COMPARING THE COMMINUTION RESULTS FROM THE HIGH ENERGY ELECTRIC SPARK TECHNIQUE TO CONVENTIONAL CRUSHING TECHNIQUESUNDER CAREFULLY CONTROLLED CONDITIONS. THE DATA FROM THESE TESTS WILL PROVIDE A BENCH MARK FOR EVALUATING THE EFFICIENCY AND ECONOMY OF THE NOVEL PROCESS FOR PULVERIZING AND CLEANING COAL IN THE 2-20 MICRON SCALE SIZE.