ECCRIA 10 comes to Hull: conference sessions

Alan Thompson reports on the proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Coal Research and its Applications (ECCRIA10), which took place in September at the University of Hull in the UK.

Parallel sessions were planned for ECCRIA 10 to allow for a greater number of papers and wider scope of topic to be included in the conference. Day one comprised three sessions on carbon capture and storage (CCS), as well as one on coal gasification. This included presenters from the UK, Poland, Serbia, Germany, Australia and South Africa.

Day two focused on flow measurement, characterisation and oxy-fuel combustion and a first of two sessions on biomass, while Day 3 featured the second biomass session, as well as another on ash, trace elements and deposition.

There was also a poster session compriseing 18 presentations on topics such as gas flow measuring, artificial oxidation of coals, co-pyrolysis of tyre waste and coal, characterisation of degraded solvents from amine scrubbers and many more varied topics.

Carbon capture and storage

Some of the highlights of the CCS sessions included a couple of papers on calcium-looking: Nikolaos Nikolopoulos, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Greece, presented on the use of calcium-looping as an efficient post-combustion process in CCS with reference to its use in cement plants, while Dawid Hanak, Cranfield University, UK, discussed calcium-looping for improved heat integration opportunities and lower energy penalties.

Results from a pilot-scale amine capture plant in Poland were reported by Adam Tatarczuk, Institute for Chemical Processing of Coal, Poland, while his colleague, Marcin Stec, discussed the benefits of being able to estimate CO2 loading in the flue gas stream through quantitative structure property relationships (QSPR) to optimise amine usage.

Modelling CCS performance was also discussed by Adekola Lawal, Process Systems Enterprise, UK, who described the need for an integrated approach to CCS modelling as investigated in the CCS Modelling Tool-kit project. This project, which received a £3 million grant from the UK Energy Technologies Institute and was completed in July 2014, was reported as having exceeded its objectives.

A final highlight saw Mathew Aneke, University of Hull, UK, present initial work on the use of by-product liquid nitrogen from the air-separation units as a cryogenic air storage system needed in an oxy-fuel boiler plant.

Biomass

Papers on biomass and its torrefaction were well represented with two sessions dedicated to the subject.

Leilani Darvell, University of Leeds, UK, reported on the effect of particle size on the torrefaction of willow and eucalyptus, while papers form Samson Bada, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and Collins Ndibe, Universität Stuttgart, Germany, considered co-firing various biomass with coal – bamboo in Bada’s case and torrefied sprice pellets in Ndibe’s.

Biomass ignitiation also featured in a number of presentations with Tom Bennet, University of Nottingham, UK, reporting on experimental studies into biomass ignition behaviour using visual drop-tube furnace methods and Hannah Chalmers, University of Edinburgh, UK, measuring ignition behaviour of biomass coal particles under oxy-fuel conditions using an ignition chamber.

Elsewhere, Patrick Mason, University of Leeds, UK, reported his recent work on flame combustion studies for single particles of biomass; biomass char yields and reactivity were described by Philip Jenkinson, University of Nottingham, UK, using a correlation with aromatic carbon content; and Timipere Salome Farrow, also of the University of Nottingham, found that when using a drop-tube furnace under oxy-fuel conditions that biomass could act as an effective catalyst to improve coal devolatilisation and combustion efficiency.

Indeed the University of Nottingham was particular present in the biomass sessions, with a third presenter, Shalini Graham, describing the important effect of weathering, self-heating and storage on biomass pellets, who found that, depending upon the nature of the biomass the durability of the pellets varied. Thermally treated pellets performed best although all need indoor storage to maintain their durability.

Low-rank coal

The session on low rank and brown coal was opened by Roland Aekersberg, Loesche, Germany, who described his company’s Coal Enhancement Process. This combines drying, grinding and classification. Results showed that the process using raw low rank coal was effective and the finished product could be fed directly into a briquetting press.

Two summaries of Pakistani coals were also presented: Muhammad Tayyeb Javed, University of Leeds, UK, reported on Thar lignite and Shafiq ur Rehman, University of Sheffield, UK, on coals from the Salt and Trans Indus regions.

IGCC and gas turbines

The final session was on IGCC and gas turbines. Papers included a dynamic simulation study on the IGCC process with a novel activated carbon-based pre combustion CO2 capture system from Yue Wang, University of Warwick, UK, large eddy simulation of combustion instability in gas turbine engines from Jianguo Wang, University of Hull, UK, the application of Helmholtz resonators as combustion dynamics stabilising devices for advance power generation Philip Rubini, University of Hull, UK and a study into a CCGT power plant integrated with post combustion CO2 capture and compression from Xiaobo Luo, also from the University of Hull, UK.

Conclusion

The papers from this conference represented a broad spectrum of current research not just in the UK but worldwide. Although most of the presentations are from academic institutions, many were co-authored by representatives from industry. This demonstrates the aim of the conference organisers and the Coal Research Forum to focus on the application of coal research. A complete conference programme can be found here.

The first part of the article can be found here.

Written by Alan Thompson. Edited by Jonathan Rowland.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/power/24102014/world-coal-eccria10-comes-to-hull-2-coal1446/