A HIGH-QUALITY COAL WATER SLURRY PRODUCTION PROCESS

OVER THE YEARS, THERE HAVE BEEN A NUMBER OF ADVANCED COAL COMBUSTIONTECHNOLOGIES WHICH HAVE ATTEMPTED TO UTILIZE COAL-WATER SLURRY (CWS) AS FUEL. TYPICALLY, THE GOALS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF CWS FUEL TECHNOLOGIES HAVE BEEN AIMED AT UTILIZATION OF RECOVERED FINE COAL, REPLACEMENT OF NATURAL GAS OR PETROLEUM, OR ELIMINATION OF THE HANDLING AND DEWATERING PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH HIGHLY BENEFICATED FINE COAL. A DRAWBACK TO THE UTILIZATION OFCWS AS A FUEL, FOR MANY OF THE PROGRAMS, HAS BEEN THE LACK OF A SOURCE OF RELIABLE, HIGH-QUALITY COAL-WATER FUEL. THE MANUFACTURE OF CONSISTENT, STABLE COAL-WATER SLURRIES IS PROBLEMATICOWING TO THE NATURALLY BROAD RANGE OF COAL PROPERTIES AND THE COMPLEXITY OF THE BEHAVIOR OFSOLID-LIQUID MIXTURES. IF THE CWS PRODUCER KNOWS THE EFFECT OF CHANGING PROCESS CONDITIONS ON THE SLURRY PRODUCT, ADJUSTMENTS IN PLANT OPERATING CONDITIONS CAN BE MADE AND THE PRODUCT QUALITY CAN BE MAINTAINED. IN THIS PHASE I PROJECT, INVENTIVE PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY WILL BE DEVELOPED AND COUPLED WITH SOUND ENGINEERING EXPERIMENTATION TO ACHIEVE NEAR PERFECT CONTROL OVER COAL SLURRYPRODUCT QUALITY PARAMETERS. IN PHASE II, THE FULLY AUTOMATED CWS PRODUCTION PROCESS WILL BE DEMONSTRATED AT A ONE-TON PER HOUR CWS PRODUCTION FACILITY. WHEN COMPLETED, THE PLANT WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING CONSISTENT AND RELIABLE CWS FROM ANY FEEDSTOCK.