Coal Processing for Clean Fuels
Coal Preparation Technologies

Timeline | References | Contacts | Map | PDF Version

Participant
ABB Combustion Engineering, Inc.and CQ Inc.

Locations
Grand Forks, Grand Forks County, ND (bench tests)

Windsor, Hartford County, CT (bench- and pilot-scale tests)

Alliance, Columbiana County, OH (pilot-scale tests)

Five utility host sites

Plant Capacity/Production
Full-scale testing took place at utility sites ranging in size from 250 - 880 MWe.

Coal
Wide variety of coals and blends

Additional Team Members
Black & Veatch
cofunder and software developer
Electric Power

Research Institute
cofunder
The Babcock & Wilcox Company
cofunder and pilot-scale tester

Electric Power Technologies, Inc.
field tester

University of North Dakota, Energy and Environmental Research Center
bench-scale tester
Utility Compnanies
5 hosts

Technology
CQ Inc.'s EPRI Coal Quality Expert™ (CQE™) computer software

Project Funding

Coal Quality Expert, CQE, CQIS, and CQIM are trademarks of the Electric Power Research Institute.
Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel.
OS/2 Warp is a registered trademark of IBM.
Windows is a registed trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

Project Objective
The objective of the project was to provide the utility industry with a PC software program it could use to confidently and inexpensively evaluate the potential for coal-cleaning, blending, and switching options to reduce emissions while producing the lowest cost electricity. Specifically the project was to (1) enhance the existing Coal Quality Information System (CQIS™) database and Coal Quality Impact Model (CQIM™) to allow assessment of the effects of coal-cleaning on specific boiler costs and performance; and (2) develop and validate CQE™, a model that allows accurate and detailed prediction of coal quality impacts on total power plant operating cost and performance.

Technology/Project Description
The CQE™ is a software tool that brings a new level of sophistication to fueling decisions by integrating the system-wide impact of fuel purchase decisions on coal-fired power plant performance, emissions, and power generation costs. The impacts of coal quality; capital improvements; operational changes; and environmental compliance alternatives on power plant emissions, performance, and production costs can be evaluated using CQE™. CQE™ can be used to systematically evaluate all such impacts, or it may be used in modules with some default data to perform more strategic or comparative studies.

ABB/CQ Coal Quality Expert Process Flow Diagram
Larger jpeg or wmf version

Results Summary

Environmental

• CQE™ includes models to evaluate emission and regulatory issues.

Operational

• CQE™ can be used on a stand-alone computer or as a network application for utilities, coal producers, and equipment manufacturers to perform detailed coal impact analyses.

• Four features included in the CQE™ program are:

  • Fuel Evaluator,

  • Plant Engineer,

  • Environmental Planner, and

  • Coal-Cleaning Expert.

• CQE™ can be used to evaluate:

  • Coal quality,

  • Transportation system options,

  • Performance issues, and

  • Alternative emissions control strategies.

• CQE™ operates on an OS/2 Warp^® (Version 3 or later) operating system with preferred hardware requirements of a Pentium^®-equipped personal computer, 1 gigabyte hard disk space, 32 megabytes RAM, 1024x768 SVGA, and CD-ROM.

Economic

• CQE™ includes economic models to determine production cost components for coal-cleaning processes, power production equipment, and emissions control systems.

Project Summary
CQE™ began with EPRI's CQIM™, developed for EPRI by Black & Veatch and introduced in 1989. CQIM™ was endowed with a variety of capabilities, including evaluating Clean Air Act compliance strategies, evaluating bids on coal contracts, conducting test-burn planning and analysis, and providing technical and economic analyses of plant operating strategies. CQE™, which combines CQIM™ with other existing software and databases, extends the art of model-based fuel evaluation established by CQIM™ in three dimensions: (1) new flexibility and application, (2) advanced technical models and performance correlations, and (3) advanced user interface and network awareness.

Operational Performance

• Alabama Power's Gatson, Unit No. 5 (880 MWe), Wilsonville, Alabama;

• Mississippi Power's Watson, Unit No. 4 (250 MWe), Gulfport , Mississippi;

• New England Power's Brayton Point, Unit No. 2 (285 MWe) and Unit No. 3 (615 MWe), Somerset, Massachusetts;

• Northern States Power's King Station (560 MWe), Bayport, Minnesota; and

• Public Service Company of Oklahoma's Northeastern, Unit No. 4 (445 MWe), Oologah, Oklahoma.

The six large-scale field tests consisted of burning a baseline coal and an alternate coal over a 2-month period. The baseline coal was used to characterize the operating performance of the boiler. The alternate coal, a blended or cleaned coal of improved quality, was burned in the boiler for the remaining test period.

The baseline and alternate coals for each test site also were burned in bench- and pilot-scale facilities under similar conditions. The alternate coal was cleaned at CQ Inc. to determine what quality levels of clean coal can be produced economically and then transported to the bench- and pilot-scale facilities for testing. All data from bench-, pilot-, and full-scale facilities were evaluated and correlated to formulate algorithms used to develop the model.

CQE™ Capability. The OS/2^®-based program evaluates coal quality, transportation system options, performance issues, and alternative emissions control strategies for utility power plants. CQE™ is composed of technical tools to evaluate performance issues, environmental models to evaluate emissions and regulatory issues, and economic models to determine production cost components. These include consumables (e.g., fuel, scrubber additives), waste disposal, operation and maintenance, replacement energy costs, and operation and maintenance costs for coal-cleaning processes, power production equipment, and emissions control systems. CQE™ has four main features:

• Fuel Evaluator--Performs system-, plant-, or unit-level fuel quality, economic, and technical assessments.

• Plant Engineer--Provides in-depth performance evaluations with a more focused scope than provided in the Fuel Evaluator.

• Environmental Planner--Provides access to evaluation and presentation capabilities of the Acid Rain Advisor.

• Coal-Cleaning Expert--Establishes the feasibility of cleaning a coal, determines cleaning processes, and predicts associated costs.

Software Description. The CQE™ includes more than 100 algorithms based on the data generated in the six full-scale field tests. The CQE™ design philosophy underscores the importance of flexibility by modeling all important power plant equipment and systems and their performance in real-world situations. This level of sophistication allows new applications to be added by assembling a model of how objects interact. Updated information records can be readily shared among all affected users because CQE™ is network-aware, enabling users throughout an organization to share data and results. The CQE™ object-oriented design, coupled with an object database management system, allows different views into the same data. As a result, staff efficiency is enhanced when decisions are made.

CQE™ also can be expanded without major revisions to the system. Object-oriented programming allows new objects to be added and old objects to be deleted or enhanced easily. For example, if modeling advancements are made with respect to predicting boiler ash deposition (i.e., slagging and fouling), the internal calculations of the object that provides these predictions can be replaced or augmented. Other objects affected by ash deposition (e.g., ash collection and disposal systems, soot blower systems) do not need to be altered; thus, the integrity of the underlying system is maintained.

System Requirements. CQE™ uses the OS/2^® operating system. CQE™ can operate in stand-alone mode on a single computer or on a network. Technical support is available from Black & Veatch for licensed users.

Commercial Applications
The CQE™ system is applicable to all electric power generation plants and large industrial/institutional boilers that burn pulverized coal. Potential users include fuel suppliers, environmental organizations, government and regulatory institutions, and engineering firms. International markets for CQE™ are being explored by both CQ Inc. and Black & Veatch.

EPRI owns the software and distributes CQE™ to EPRI members for their use. CQE™ is available to others in the form of three types of licenses: user, consultant, and commercializer. CQ Inc. and Black & Veatch have each signed commercialization agreements, which give both companies non-exclusive worldwide rights to sell user's licenses and to offer consulting services that include the use of CQE™ software.

  Five utilities acted as hosts for field tests of CQE™.

CQE™ was recognized in 1996 by the Secretary of Energy and the President of EPRI as the best of nine DOE/EPRI cost-shared utility research and development projects under the "Sustainable Electric Partnership" program.

The CQE™ program has been incorporated in the Vista program package, which is the latest version of the software. Vista operates in the Windows® environment. The Vista Fuels Web server has a Home Page on the World Wide Web (http://www.fuels.bv.com) to promote the software, facilitate communications between developers and users, and eventually allow software updates to be distributed over the Internet. The Home Page also helps attract the interest of international utilities and consulting firms.

Contacts

Clark D. Harrison, President
  CQ Inc.
  160 Quality Center Rd.
  Homer City, PA 15748
  (724) 479-3503
  (724) 479-4181 (fax)
  clarkh@cq-inc.com

Douglas Archer, DOE/HQ, (301) 903-9443
  douglas.archer@hq.doe.gov

Joseph B. Renk III, NETL, (412) 386-6406
  joseph.renk@netl.doe.gov