Gasification is a promising technology for producing power from coal in an environmentally friendly manner. However, the solid fuel-to-air ratio must be maintained precisely. Therefore, it is necessary to control the solid, or coal slurry, flow rate near the injection point so as to account for perturbations in air/oxygen and steam flow rates. This project will resize and further modify a high authority, fast acting digital valve (currently being modified for aero gas turbine applications) for use in coal slurry applications. Although the current valve can withstand aero engine environments, it could be adversely stressed by industrial gasification environments because of the need to co-locate the valve and injector. Therefore, in Phase I, a new valve design will be developed by incorporating a microchannel cooled valve body, enabling survival at much higher temperatures.
Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The new valves should provide a means of operating a gasification system for coal, increasing a coal generating plants efficiency by almost 100% and simultaneously reducing pollutant emissions. In addition to the gas turbine industry, the new valve technology could be applied to the automotive industry (where diesel and spark ignition engines could benefit from higher-speed injection), to servo-hydraulic systems (for control surface actuation, active suspensions, simulator platforms, and precision machinery), and to the metering and delivery of injected drugs such as insulin.
