Fourteen research and development projects to scale up coal-based advanced combustion power systems and gasification processes and improve costs and endurance of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have won investments of more than $ 28 million from the Department of Energy (DOE).

The Energy Department on August 24 announced it has selected the projects to help “enable cost-competitive, fossil fuel–based power generation with near-zero emissions.”

Projects to Support 10-MW Pilots with Near-Zero Emissions

Three of the 14 projects were selected to complete preliminary designs of 10-MW pilot plants based on advanced combustion systems. The DOE invested $ 3.2 million in pre-project planning for a General Electric (GE) chemical looping combustion pilot plant. It also invested $ 3.3 million for pre-project planning for a flameless pressurized oxycombustion pilot plant spearheaded by San Antonio–based Southwest Research Institute, ITEA, Jacobs, the Electric Power Research Institute, General Electric Global Research, and Peter Reineck. Another $ 3.3 million went to Babcock & Wilcox and  The Ohio State University for a front-end engineering and design study for their coal-direct chemical looping pilot plant

Each of the 10-MW pilots will be capable of capturing 90% of carbon dioxide emissions and will contain design features that will be assessed prior to commercial-scale demonstration, the DOE said.…

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