METC Combustion Research Facility

The objective of the Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC) high pressure combustion facility is to provide a mid-scale facility for combustion and cleanup research to support DOE`s advanced gas turbine, pressurized, fluidized-bed combustion, and hot gas cleanup programs. The facility is intended to fill a gap between lab scale facilities typical of universities and large scale combustion/turbine test facilities typical of turbine manufacturers. The facility is now available to industry and university partners through cooperative programs with METC. Currently two combustion rigs are operating and one additional project is under construction for the facility. Space is available in the test cells for at least one additional test rig. A pressurized pulsed combustor began operating in July of 1993. The combustor will carry out pulsed combustion of natural gas at pressures up to 10 atmospheres. A high pressure steady flow rig is currently completely fabricated. The objective of this rig is to test novel, steady-flow, pressurized combustors that produce very low NO{sub x} and other emissions. An evaporation rig currently is in startup. This rig will test the concept of water injection in an externally fired cycle. The specific technical issue that the unit will address is evaporation rates of water droplets in high pressure flows

Split flow gasifier

A-moving bed coal gasifier for the production of tar-free, low ammonia fuel gas is described. The gasifier employs a combustion zone in a free-aboard area above the moving bed to burn coal fines to provide hot combustion gases for pyrolyzing and gasifying coal particulates in the moving bed to form fuel gas as the hot gases move co-currently with the downwardly moving coal particulates. The fuel gas contains entrained tars and ammonia compounds which contact hot char and ash in the moving bed and are cracked so that the fuel gas removed from the gasifier at a midpoint off-take is essentially tar-free and of low ammonia content. Concurrently with this gasification reaction, steam and an oxidant are introduced into a region below the moving bed to flow countercurrently to the downwardly moving bed to contact and react with carbon remaining in the char to create additional fuel gas which is also extracted from the gasifier at the mid-point off-take

A staged fluidized-bed comubstion and filter system

A staged fluidized-bed combustion and filter system for substantially reducing the quantity of waste through the complete combustion into ash-type solids and gaseous products. The device has two fluidized- bed portions, the first primarily as a combustor/pyrolyzer bed, and the second as a combustor/filter bed. The two portions each have internal baffles to define stages so that material moving therein as fluidized beds travel in an extended route through those stages. Fluidization and movement is achieved by the introduction of gasses into each stage through a directional nozzle. Gases produced in the combustor/pyrolyzer bed are permitted to travel into corresponding stages of the combustor/filter bed through screen filters that permit gas flow but inhibit solids flow. Any catalyst used in the combustor/filter bed is recycled. The two beds share a common wall to minimize total volume of the system. A slightly modified embodiment can be used for hot gas desulfurization and sorbent regeneration. Either side-by-side rectangular beds or concentric beds can be used. The system is particularly suited to the processing of radioactive and chemically hazardous waste

Granular filtration in a fluidized bed

Successful development of advanced coal-fired power conversion systems often require reliable and efficient cleanup devices which can remove particulate and gaseous pollutants from high-temperature high-pressure gas streams. A novel filtration concept for particulate cleanup has been developed at the Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC) of the U.S. Department of Energy. The filtration system consists of a fine metal screen filter immersed in a fluidized bed of granular material. As the gas stream passes through the fluidized bed, a layer of the bed granular material is entrained and deposited at the screen surface. This material provides a natural granular filter to separate fine particles from the gas stream passing through the bed. Since the filtering media is the granular material supplied by the fluidized bed, the filter is not subjected to blinding like candle filters. Because only the inflowing gas, not fine particle cohesive forces, maintains the granular layer at the screen surface, once the thickness and permeability of the granular layer is stabilized, it remains unchanged as long as the in-flowing gas flow rate remains constant. The weight of the particles and the turbulent nature of the fluidized bed limits the thickness of the granular layer on the filter leading to a self-cleaning attribute of the filter. This paper presents work since then on a continuous filtration system. The continuous filtration testing system consisted of a filter, a two-dimensional fluidized-bed, a continuous powder feeder, a laser-based in-line particle counting, sizing, and velocimeter (PCSV), and a continuous solids feeding/bed material withdrawal system. The two-dimensional, transparent fluidized-bed allowed clear observation of the general fluidized state of the granular material and the conditions under which fines are captured by the granular layer

Physical interpretation of chaotic time series analysis parameters for fluidized beds

The Morgantown Energy Technology Center has development programs in a number of fossil energy technologies which use fluidized beds as reactors to carry out combustion, gasification, and desulfurization. The diagnosis of operating problems and control of bed behavior is critical to the efficient performance of these systems. The overall goal of the present work is to develop novel techniques to improve diagnosis and control of these systems. Chaotic time series analysis has recently been used with pressure drop, void fraction, and heat transfer data to characterize fluidized bed dynamics. Unique chaos parameters derived from this analysis can distinguish among various fluidization conditions within gas fluidized systems. In this paper, a basis for understanding the physical meaning of several chaotic parameters is developed and illustrated