Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Receives $1 Million Award from U.S. Department of Energy to Advance Oxy-Combustion Technology

The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and its team members $1 million to evaluate the benefits of pressurized oxy-combustion in a fluidized bed reactor to economically capture greenhouse gases emitted by coal-fired power plants. As part of the award, which the DOE signed into contract today, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and its partners will contribute an additional $267,000 toward the project.

Oxy-fuel combustion is the process of producing heat to generate electricity by burning fuel using pure oxygen instead of air. The combustion process using pressurized oxygen and recycled carbon dioxide gas improves process efficiency and eliminates nitrogen from the exhaust, thus enabling the economic capture of the carbon dioxide gas for geologic sequestration or enhanced oil recovery.

Click here to read the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne press release.

Coverage:

• Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Receives $1 Million DOE Contract (San Fernando Valley Business Journal)
• DOE awards $1mn to test emissions control technology (Power Engineering)

P&W Rocketdyne Celebrates Commissioning of Commercial-Scale Prototype Dry Solids Pump to Provide High-Efficiency, Low-Emission Gasification

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne celebrated the commissioning of a commercial-scale dry-solids pump – a revolutionary feed system integrated with PWR’s compact gasifier to efficiently gasify coal, petcoke and other solid fuels. The dry-solids pump, located at the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota, is the latest step toward global commercialization of innovative technology designed to lower energy costs, provide a clean alternative fuel source and strengthen U.S. energy security.

The 400-ton per day prototype dry-solids feed pump system, developed by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, will be used to test petcoke, bituminous and sub-bituminous coals over the next 12 months. The commissioning is a collaborative effort between the EERC; Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne; the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE); National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL); ExxonMobil; and the Alberta Energy Research Institute.

Click here to read Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's press release.

Coverage:

• Rocket developer, EERC begin testing solids pump for gasification (Biomass Magazine)
• NETL: Project could make coal gasification 'economically competitive' (The State Journal)
• EERC works toward goal of clean coal at less cost (Dickinson Press)
• New high-pressure dry-solids feed pump could make high-efficiency, lower-emission gasification economically competitive (Green Car Congress)
• Opening New Avenues for High-Efficiency, Low-Emission Coal Gasification (U.S. Dept. of Energy)