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July 2009 Analytical Instrumentation & Environmental Monitoring

Vision Research high-speed digital cameras enlighten revolutionary research into the cleaner use of fossil fuels through coal gasification.

Here is a startling fact

According to the United States Department of Energy (DOE), the average US household uses several tons of coal each year without ever seeing it! As the most abundant fossil fuel available in the United States, there is more energy in the coal in this country than in the world’s entire oil reserves.

The use of coal and other fossil fuels can be traced back to the era of the cave man; however, it was the Industrial Revolution that brought fossil fuels centre stage as the country’s go-to energy source. With the advent of the steam engine, coal was the driving force behind the nation’s transportation sector, namely locomotives and ships. Using coal to produce electricity did not come into the picture until the 1880s, but it is currently burned by power plants to produce more than half of the electricity used in the US.

Unfortunately, the burning of fossil fuels releases significant amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. One of the major greenhouse gases contributing to the escalating global warming crisis, it has long been the focus of scientists looking to develop more efficient and advanced technologies to reduce and hopefully eliminate the gas as a by-product from the use of fossil fuels. Significant strides have been made over the past 20 years and new technologies are now available which can remove up to 90% of emissions that would previously have been released into the air. Revolutionary methods of using coal as an energy source for power plants, including those which do not directly involve burning the fuel to produce heat, are also now being developed and used.

One of these methods, known as advanced coal gasification or integrated combined cycle gasification (IGCC), is a unique process that ultimately turns coal into a clean gas which can be used to produce electricity. Perhaps the greatest advantage offered by IGCC is the possibility to completely remove carbon dioxide and other pollutants without releasing them into the air as by products.

The basics of coal gasification are well understood and coal gasification has been in use for many years; however, the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), part of DOE’s national laboratory system, has been taking a closer look at the technology with the hopes of further enhancing its reliability and overall performance in IGCC power plants. With the help of Vision Research, a leading manufacturer of advanced high-speed digital imaging systems, NETL is now able to study the dynamics of coal particles during the gasification process. Particle dynamics are of critical importance because they are one of the primary determinants of the reaction rate and efficiency of the gasification process. Conducting research on the microscopic level using a Vision Research Phantom V7.1 digital camera to record the high-speed particle motion, NETL researchers made significant breakthroughs in coal gasification research.

To read more and find out how, visit: http://instrumentation.co.za/+C9779

For more information contact Margie Hengstberger, MIT, +27 (0)12 348 0569, margie@marmit.co.za, www.marmit.co.za

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