U.S. Energy Department Supports Professor's Clean Coal Research
Professor L.S. Fan’s 25 kW demonstration plant on Ohio State’s West CampusThe U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a $5 million grant to a College of Engineering professor for research related to clean coal technology.
L.S. Fan, internationally recognized for his expertise in energy and environmental reaction engineering, will use the grant to further develop a process he invented to convert coal and biomass to electricity while capturing carbon dioxide emissions.
A professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, Fan has successfully demonstrated the process, called syngas chemical looping, on a small pilot scale. With the new grant, he will scale up the process to a 250 kW pilot plant to obtain performance data to prove the process eventually can be commercialized for coal-based power plants, contributing to the United States’ efforts toward energy independence and greenhouse gas emission reductions.
The syngas chemical looping process Fan and his research group developed uses an iron oxide-based chemical looping medium to indirectly and flexibly convert carbonaceous fuels such as coal and biomass into hydrogen and/or electricity while at the same time capturing and separating the carbon dioxide. The process is simpler and more efficient compared to conventional gasification processes. Moreover, the pollutant and greenhouse gas management cost for the syngas chemical looping process is minimal compared to conventional process schemes.
Fan’s 250 kW pilot plant demonstration will be at the National Carbon Capture Center, which the U.S. Department of Energy formed this spring in Wilsonville, Ala., for a combined operating time of more than 3,000 hours. Fan expects the testing of the new pilot plant to finish by early 2013, with the next scale up to follow immediately.
Fan’s team works with the Particulate Solids Research Institute to design and operate a cold flow model for the plant; Shell/CRI in preparing the iron oxide-based chemical looping medium; Babcock and Wilcox Co., Air Products and Chemicals Inc., and IWI Inc. for the design and construction of the plant; and CONSOL Energy, which will independently perform techno-economic analysis and collaborate with Ohio State and other partners on the commercialization plan.
Fan’s grant is part of $151 million awarded through the Department of Energy’s recently-formed Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy ("ARPA-E"). ARPA-E was originally established under the America Competes Act of 2007 to develop nimble, creative and inventive approaches to transform the global energy landscape while advancing America's technology leadership. In April, President Obama announced $400 million in initial funding for ARPA-E through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
News media: Contact Joan Slattery Wall, engineering communications, at (614) 292-4064 or wall.107@osu.edu for more information.
