THE CSIRO’S June issue of Process will feature projects designed to improve the sustainability of Australia’s minerals and coal industries.
One of the projects is a sophisticated mathematical model to identify how furnace operations will need to be modified to use dried brown coal.
Dried brown coal has 70% less water than the brown coal currently used in Victorian power generation plants, which gives it the potential to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions from that source.
CSIRO’s Dr Phil Schwarz says the change from wet to dried coal represents a challenge for existing combustion systems. He says that by directly replacing the present coal with dried coal will change the temperature profile in the furnace and it may not operate optimally.
The project is partly funded through the Victorian Government’s Energy Technology Innovation Strategy (ETIS).
Schwarz and his team have developed a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model that reproduces the coal-burning process within a furnace. The researchers are validating the CFD model using a scaled-down physical model.
The information from the CFD model could be used by Victorian power generation companies to reconfigure their furnaces to accommodate the dried coal, and help to maximise outputs.
The aforementioned story and many more can be found in the June 2009 issue of Process, which will be released on Wednesday 3 June. A pdf of the magazine is available now at: www.csiro.au/resources/ProcessJune09.html
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