Simulating gasification
A process called gasification can turn carbonaceous fuels—coal, petroleum, or biomass—into syngas, a cleaner-burning fuel mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Scientists from the National Energy Technology Laboratory are concluding a three-year project using supercomputers at Oak Ridge and Argonne national laboratories for simulations to reduce the cost and time of building commercial-scale gasifiers. The efforts will inform the design of advanced technologies to supply clean, reliable and affordable electricity.
NETL's Clean Coal Power Initiative, a cost-shared venture of government and industry, aims to employ a commercial-scale gasifier system to sequester 90 percent of the carbon from coal with minimal impact to electricity costs.
"High-performance computing is allowing us to reveal and study features of the gas–solids flow in a gasifier to a degree never before possible, experimentally or computationally," said Madhava Syamlal, principal investigator of the project.
Source: DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Other sources
- Story tips from the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory — March 2011from Science BlogFri, 4 Mar 2011, 22:03:01 UTC
- Story Tips from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory March 2011from Newswise - ScinewsFri, 4 Mar 2011, 22:00:45 UTC