WKU RESEARCHERS DEVELOP ON-LINE COAL ANALYZER
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- A team of researchers and students at Western Kentucky University, led by Dr. George Vourvopoulos, has developed a way for power plants and coal producers to quickly analyze coal.
The on-line coal analyzer will allow producers and users to determine important characteristics of coal within two minutes, instead of waiting two days for a lab analysis, Vourvopoulos, a professor of physics and astronomy, said. The technique has sparked wide industry interest, he said, as federal pollution standards tighten.
The new regulations will require about 500 coal-fired power plants to reduce sulphur emissions. "About 55 percent have opted to control their sulphur emissions by using a blending technique--buying coal from various areas across the United States and blending them so that the amount of sulphur that it contains is under control," Vourvopoulos said. "We're talking about thousands of tons that they have to blend."
That can lead to other concerns, however. In addition to sulphur, coal has to be tested for heating value and ash, sodium and moisture content, he said.
Vourvopoulos said he began working on this technique in 1993 when he received two grants from the U.S. Department of Energy. Those grants were used to establish the Applied Physics Institute at Western and conduct the research. The project received continuous funding and positive reviews, he said, which led to a grant from the National Science Foundation last year to develop the analyzer as a commercial product.
The grants have totaled more than $1 million.
The technique is non-intrusive, meaning the coal does not have to be touched. As it moves through the analyzer, the coal is bombarded by neutrons, which penetrate and interact with the coal's nuclei. The nuclei of the various elements, which include carbon, oxygen, sulphur and other elements, emit specific electromagnetic radiation similar to light waves, which are picked up and measured by a series of detectors.
"We have developed very elaborate computer codes that can go through this complicated spectrum and discern the information for each of these elements," he said.
Within two minutes, the operator begins receiving the information via computer, which will allow the proper blending of the coal.
Now that the prototype is operational, Vourvopoulos said his team will call producers and power-plant operators and invite them to bring samples for testing. They can compare these tests to a lab analysis, he said.
"We have already done extensive market research and we know there is a need for this type of equipment," he said. The patent for the process is pending and a plan for the analyzer's commercial development is being developed.
Vourvopoulos is especially proud that this has been an all-Western project.
"We started this at the ground and built it," he said. "We built the knowledge for it and we built the equipment for it, all using homegrown talent, students and faculty."
"This was built with Western manpower and Western mind power."
For more information, contact Dr. George Vourvopoulos at (502) 781-3859 or visit the Applied Physicis Institute Website at www.wku.edu/Dept/Academic/Ogden/Phyast/API/research/coal.htm. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu, click on "News and Announcements."
Contact: Bob Skinner, [email protected]
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