News

2006 news releases

Ohio Air Quality Development Authority Approves Nearly $1.3 Million
In Grants for University-based, Clean-Coal Research Projects

(Columbus) The Ohio Air Quality Development Authority (OAQDA), at its July meeting approved $1,275,138 in Ohio Coal Development Office (OCDO) funding for 15 clean-coal research projects at seven Ohio universities for the 2006-2007 academic year.  The projects were selected from 28 proposals submitted to OAQDA earlier this year.

The projects were evaluated and ranked by the Consortium Review Committee and submitted to OCDO’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).  The TAC and OCDO, in turn, reviewed them and made recommendations to the OAQDA.  The Consortium Review Committee is composed of engineers and researchers from the public and private sectors who guide the members of the Ohio Coal Research Consortium.  OCRC was established in 1989 by OCDO to better coordinate university coal research and development and to foster awareness and collaborations among Ohio universities.

“These projects reflect the broad diversity of clean-coal research going on at universities around Ohio.  Some are truly breakthrough in nature.  Together, they reaffirm Ohio’s recognition nationally and internationally as a leader in developing energy-efficient, environmentally sound ways to use the world’s abundant supplies of coal,” said Mark R. Shanahan, executive director of the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority.

Funded projects and their corresponding universities are as follows:

The University of Cincinnati:

• $79,997 to help develop a novel adsorbent to improve controls over mercury in flue gases produced by Ohio’s coal-based power plants;
• $80,000 to develop a thermally and chemically stable membrane reactor for potential commercial use in producing highly purified streams of hydrogen and carbon dioxide from Ohio coal;
• $79,980 to pursue development of a novel, nano-engineered adsorbent that can improve mercury capture from coal gasification power plants.

The University of Dayton:

• $80,000 to study the effect of fly ash surface and flue gas composition on the transformation of mercury during coal combustion, with the goal of further controlling mercury emissions;
• $72,472 to further study the chemical transformation of mercury in power plant exhaust systems, using various types of coal;

The Ohio State University:

• $79,990 to integrate the “syngas redox” process into coal-to-chemicals technology for the production of hydrogen, liquid fuels, and other chemicals (syngas is produced in coal gasification and consists primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen);
• $79,998 to further study high-temperature water-gas shift reaction in the coal gasification process to foster the production of hydrogen more efficiently and economically;
• $79,999 to continue development of the “chemical looping reforming” process for production of hydrogen from coal.  This process produces a nearly pure stream of hydrogen and a stream of carbon dioxide suitable for geologic sequestration.  The energy efficiency of this process is in the 80 percent to 90 percent range, much higher than any conventional process for producing power from coal;
• $79,998 to study the critical issues involved in the application of solid oxide fuel cells in large-scale, coal-based power plants to enhance co-production of hydrogen and electricity;
• $79,998 to develop of an improved catalyst for oxidizing carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide during coal gasification, thereby enhancing the purity of hydrogen produced for use in fuel cells;
• $79,936 to demonstrate in the laboratory in one reactor, the conversion of coal syngas to hydrogen, the capture of hydrogen sulfide, and also the capture of carbon dioxide in a stream suitable for geologic sequestration.

Ohio University

• $80,000 to develop a solid oxide fuel cell anode that is resistant to poisoning by hydrogen sulfide.

The University of Akron

• $80,000 to develop a highly efficient coal-based fuel cell for the direct use of coal for electric power generation.

Case Western Reserve University

• $79,994 to continue and expand experimental and geochemical modeling studies of reactions among carbon dioxide, brine, and the rocks and minerals in the Rose Run formation in eastern Ohio, with the intent of enabling more accurate capacity predictions for deep sequestration of carbon dioxide.

The University of Toledo

• $79,616 to develop a novel “polymeric reverse selective membrane” system that can deliver a more economical method for the separation of hydrogen from gasified coal.

With the addition of the University of Toledo, the Consortium now expands to include seven major public and private Ohio universities.

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