Advanced Electric Power Generation
Advanced Combustion/Heat Engines

Timeline | References | Contacts | Map | PDF Version

Participant
TIAX, LLC (acquired the research contracts of Arthur D. Little, Inc.)

Location
Fairbanks, AK
(University of Alaska facility)

Plant Capacity/Production
6.4 MWe (net)

Coal
Kentucky bituminous and Alaskan subbituminous

Technology
Fairbanks Morse coal-fueled diesel engine

Additional Team Members
University of Alaska at Fairbanks
host and cofunder

Fairbanks Morse Engine
diesel engine technology vendor

Gatliff Coal Company
coal supplier

Usibelli Coal Mine, Inc.
coal supplier

Project Funding

Project Objective
To prove the design, operability, durability of a coal diesel engine during 1,000 hours of operation on coal water fuel.

Technology/Project Description
The project is based on the demonstration of an 18-cylinder, heavy duty engine (6.4-MWe) modified to operate on Alaskan subbituminous coal. The clean coal diesel technology, which uses a low-rank coal-water-fuel (LRCWF), is expected to have very low NOx and SO₂ emission levels (50%-70% below current New Source Performance Standards). In addition, the demonstration plant is expected to achieve 41% efficiency, and future plant designs are expected to reach 48% efficiency. This will result in a 25% reduction in CO₂ emissions compared with conventional coal-fired plants.The engine will use selective catalytic reduction (SCR) for NOx control.

Clean Coal Diesel Process Flow Diagram
Larger jpeg or wmf version

Project Status/Accomplishments
Overall project system design was completed in early 1999. The 18-cylinder diesel engine arrived on site at UAF in January 1999 and was mounted in the engine house in late February. In October 1999, the engine, after being connected to the generator, was operated on diesel fuel to ensure it would function coupled with the generator. In May 2000, total system startup was attempted on diesel fuel. The SCR system for the diesel was tested in August 2000 and achieved 90% reduction in NOx emissions, which was within contract specifications. Since August 15, 2000, the diesel has been supplying all of the university's power requirements on fuel oil.

Testing was temporarily halted because the Goodrich Corp. division that operates the test facility, Engineered Industrial Products (which included Fairbanks Morse Engine), was spun off as a separate business now owned by EnPro Industries. As a result, the scope of the project was revised and the focus shifted to the 2-cylinder diesel engine as the optimal way to meet the demonstration project's objectives.

Commercial Applications
The U.S. diesel market is projected to exceed 60,000 MWe (over 7,000 engines) through 2020. The worldwide market is 70 times the U.S. market . The technology is particularly applicable to distributed power generation in the 5- to 20-MWe range, using indigenous coal in developing countries.

The net effective heat rate for the mature diesel system is expected to be 6,830 Btu/kWh (48% efficiency), which makes it very competitive with similarly sized coal- and fuel oil-fired installations. Environmental emissions from commercial diesel systems should be reduced to levels between 50% and 70% below NSPS. The estimated installation cost of a mature commercial unit is approximately $1,300/kW.

Contacts

Robert P.Wilson, Managing Director
  TIAX, LLC
  15 Acorn Park
  Cambridge, MA 02140-2390
  (617) 498-5806
  (617) 498-7017 (fax)
  wilson.r@tiax.biz

Victor Der, DOE/HQ, (301) 903-2700
  victor.der@hq.doe.gov

Diane Madden, NETL, 412-386-5961
  diane.madden@netl.doe.gov