Technology
Energy crunch is stimulant for coal research International conference airs views on increased coal use, maps R&D programs to overcome roadblocks Coal is again at center stage in the developing energy drama. What the energy community had envisioned as a long-term, orderly transition to increased use of coal is rapidly assuming the characteristics of a crash development program. Together with oil shale, tar sands, and expanded conventional oil exploration in reliable areas, coal is being pushed as the principal "new" energy source in the immediate future. Making coal immediately useful, however, is contingent on the success of R&D programs being instituted or carried out in North America and Europe. General requirements for a cooperative R&D program were outlined recently in Washington, D.C. at the first International Coal Research Conference (C&EN, Oct. 22, page 3). A dominant theme at the conference was that reconversion to a coal-based energy economy involves much more than resurrecting the industrial system of a previous generation. For one thing, economics won't permit the inefficiencies of the old order. For another, there are more constraints, particularly environmental, that militate against a simple reconversion to coal. Even more important than these problems is the realization that coal is one of a number of available fossil fuels, and that all of them must be viewed together as not only sources for heat energy but also as sources for chemical raw materials. Coal research programs will encompass all these aspects of the energy crisis. However, a number of the delegates to the conference expressed some anxiety about the ability of a possible Atlantic consortium to reconstitute an energy system without some serious dislocations. Even if enough capital is available there will be a bind in fabrication facilities for plant and equipment, an even bigger bind in increasing coal production and providing adequate transport, and problems in providing enough coal burning facilities to extract energy. Although manpower was not discussed at length at the conference, delegates expressed some concern
that not enough trained personnel would be ready for the big push in the next few years. The new era of coal research will depend to a large extent on how rapidly the chemical and engineering research effort can be pushed. For a change, there is now talk about shortages of R&D personnel within the next year. The organization of coal research in Europe and North America is centered on joint government-industry projects. This set-up is not expected to change substantially, although there are some private groups, such as Battelle Memorial Institute, which are now making significant contributions to traditional work carried out by established organizations. In the U.S. most coal research is sponsored by the Department of the Interior through the Bureau of Mines and the Office of Coal Research (OCR). In recent years the Environmental Protection Agency, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the National Science Foundation also have entered the picture as sources for funds. Until this year the U.S. funding level has generally been much lower than the combined European level. However, according to acting OCR director George Fumich, Jr., large infusions of funds for all phases of coal research are now being made. In fiscal year 1973, OCR was provided with $44 million. In fiscal 1974, funds are more than double, and projections of OCR expenditures through 1980 indicate that about $2 billion will be spent for coal research. Adding the funds available from other agencies, probably up to $10 billion will be spent for all energy research in the 1970's. Although European coal research funding also will be expanded in the immediate future, the corresponding increases will probably not be as large as in the U.S. Projections of future spending in Europe are not available. In addition to the Government, a
number of private- and industry-sponsored sources in the U.S. have been actively engaged in coal research. Among these are the American Gas Association, Bituminous Coal Research Institute, and Institute of Gas Technology. The newest member of this group is the Electric Power Research Institute. Although gasification of coal has received the most attention in recent years, and will continue to be important, the spectrum of coal research includes everything from geology to waste disposal. Some of the most vexing problems facing the coal industry are in the mines. Producing enough coal will necessitate some new methods of coal recovery. Among the methods now being investigated are those that will decrease manpower needed below ground. Another problem is methane control in the mines. As much as 10 cu. ft. of methane is produced from each cubic foot of coal mined. To dissipate the methane, such techniques as vent holes and water flooding have been used. It now appears that up to 90% of the methane can be eliminated by isolating a panel in a coal seam and letting it stand for two years before mining. After coal is produced, the biggest problem is transporting it to the user. Success with slurry pipelines suggests that this method of bulk transport will be used heavily in the future. However, it is generally agreed that water carriers will have to be replaced. In Canada, where transportation problems are particularly acute, water carriers in slurry pipelines have been all but ruled out. Dr. Norbert Berkowitz, a member of the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board, believes that if coal pipelines are ever used in Canada, they will employ crude oil carriers, or, possibly, refined product carriers. The ideal solution to the transportation problem is to the use the coal at the mine head. This may be possible in some cases, such as gasification plants.
Europeans spend most coal R&D funds on mining Coal research spending, 1972 $ Millions
Mining engineering Operational planning and research Product benefication Coal utilization Environmental aspects TOTALS
Belgium
France
West Germany
U.K.
$1677
$76.9
$146.4
$32.6
0.9 0.6
0.7 23.1 1.7 10.9 $113.4
7.5 107.2 7.1 22.1 $290.4
5.4 40.1 10.5 1.4 $90.0a
— 1.6 $19.8
a An additional $48 million was spent for health and safety research, not included in this total.
Oct. 29, 1973 C&EN
21
Coal utilization research is the area where most of the really new technolo gy will appear. Liquefaction of coal to produce liquid fuels and chemical raw materials is just beginning. Gasifica tion of coal to produce high- and lowB.t.u. gas is at the demonstration stage, although such processes as the Lurgi process have been used commer cially as low-B.t.u. gas producers for many years. According to Ab Flowers of the American Gas Association, the Lurgi process has never been successful when used with U.S. coals. Probably the most promising devel opment in coal utilization is the ex ploitation of the fluidized bed. In addi tion to being an efficient means of in creasing combustion efficiency, the fluidized bed promises to solve the problem of sulfur and nitrogen oxide emissions. Fluidized bed research is being actively pursued both in Europe and the U.S., particularly for its po tential utility in combined power cy cles and in gasification processes. In gasification, the four processes now being developed in the U.S. all have passed the pilot stage. All the processes have been demonstrated to be good producers of low-B.t.u. gas (up to 600 B.t.u. per standard cu. ft.). However, doubling the heat content through methanation is not a totally solved problem. In developing the research strategy for coal usage in the near future, a major consideration is relieving pres sure on oil and gas production, and consequently on imports. Europe, which must import up to 75% of its total fuel, is much more sensitive about imports than is the U.S. One of the benefits of large-scale coal usage in the U.S. would be indirect, if partial, relief of European import de mands. In addition to helping conserve the meager coal resources of Europe, a major coal development program in the U.S. also would desensitize the Euro pean oil import problem. The principal European input to the anticipated co operative program of the Atlantic con sortium will be technical know-how and a significant capacity for plant and equipment manufacture.
LC moves out of lab into the plant The Instrument Society of America's instrumentation-automation confer ence and exhibit has traditionally been a showcase for new developments in process control. This year's get-togeth er, held at mid-month in Houston, was no exception. Liquid chromatography's first move into process analyzers and a new concept in programable controllers were among the new hardware un veiled. Spurred by needs to gain even more efficiency in use of hydrocarbons and to minimize loss of hydrocarbons, pro22
C&ENOct. 29, 1973
cess control engineers may be starting a new round of technology develop ment, turning known concepts into commercial realities. One example of this commercialization effort is an au tomated on-line liquid chromatography system introduced by Applied Automa tion, Bartlesville, Okla. With this system, called Optichrom LC, liquid chromatography moves from R&D and plant laboratories to produc tion units, where it will handle materi als too unstable or not volatile enough for separation by gas chromatography. Its present status is likened to that of gas chromatography 15 years ago. The first two Optichrom LC units went on stream earlier this month. One aids in controlling a hydrofluoric acid alkylation unit in the Phillips Petrole um refinery at Borger, Tex., the other controls a fluidized bed catalytic cracking unit at the Phillips' refinery in Martinez, Calif. The system on the hydrofluoric acid alkylation unit—a liquid-liquid chro matography system—measures hydro carbons (product gasoline compo nents), acid-soluble oils, water, and hydrofluoric acid in the reactor and in the feed and effluents from the acid purification section. By having an analysis of these materials, Applied Automation engineers expect that Phillips' refinery operators will be able to boost the octane quality of the hy drofluoric acid alkylate while main taining the yield. The fluid catalytic cracking unit at Martinez gets feedstocks from a variety of crude oils and requires some change in operating conditions to maximize ef ficiency as feedstocks change. On this unit, a liquid-solid (adsorption) chro matographic system is used to measure total concentration and fused-ring dis tribution of the aromatic fraction of feeds to the unit. Unit operators are primarily concerned with the amount of aromatics having four or more rings, since these materials account for much of the carbon deposited on the catalyst and therefore determine to a large ex tent the regeneration needed. Based on the LC information, operating condi tions for both the cracker and the cata lyst regeneration section can be adjust ed for higher efficiency. Later use of this analyzer will be expanded to char acterizing feedstocks to the refinery. Many other applications are planned for the system, say Applied Automa tion engineers R. Terry Curby and Robert E. Wightman. For example, styrene and butadiene, together with cyclohexane (used as a solvent), can be determined in the charge stock for so lution styrene-butadiene rubber pro duction. Analysis of these materials using gas chromatography is not prac tical because they polymerize rapidly. Other examples of planned applica tions are high-speed determinations of molecular weight distributions in poly mers and initiator concentrations in polymerization reactors.
LC characterizes crude oil aromatics 0) 0)
g S Si •S S £ 2 m Q. < o. φ c α> υ β
α> c .2
ω Ε S
2
S £ £,£ £ α c
Ξ
Φ
•σ
£•
"5. Ε
(A
32
υ (Ο
15
α> c a ο
10
ι
Minutes
5
0
Explanation: Backflush leads to elution of coke-produc ing four-ring aromatics as single peak.
Somewhat further away from com mercialization, the two engineers say, are applications such as analysis for additives in lubricating oils, for im purities in ammonium nitrate and urea plant streams, and for naphthene, par affin, and aromatic hydrocarbons in feeds to catalytic reformers. For this latter potential use, further LC column development will be needed before paraffin-naphthene separations are practi cal, but it appears that it can be done. Meanwhile, any need to know a computer programing language may have been overcome with programable controllers developed by FX Systems Corp., Saugerties, N.Y. Engineers there have designed controllers with "languageless" push-button program ing panels. The controllers have mem ory cores that respond to operations commanded by operators pushing the buttons. Of course, the program storage ca pacity is limited, says William F. Landell, FX Systems' vice president for engineering. But instead of increasing core memory at rapidly increasing cost to handle more programs, a new core memory that is not "volatile" (the pro gram is not lost when power is cut) has been developed. In this way, programs can be added or changed by removing the core from the controller, putting it in some type of programing interface, and reinserting it into the controller. FX Systems is offering a logic/stor age subsystem which includes plug-in cards for storage. Capacity is up to 512 8-bit words in increments of 32 8-bit words. These allow the user to develop his own programs and to alter them as conditions change. Development of this total system will let original equipment makers of digital control equipment obtain a versatile logic /storage package at low cost, says Robert O. Wilson, president of FX Systems.
