Low Emission Coal
The Research Program on Low Emission Coal, led by Professor Terry Wall has an emphasis on abatement of greenhouse gases, with scientific research underpinning technologies for carbon capture, such as oxyfuel, post-combustion capture, gasification and chemical looping. The research includes coal reactions, combustion and gasification in turbulent flows, emissions, and impact of carbon capture for retrofitted units as well as new plant. Emissions from current pf plant are also included. The Program involves interaction with technology demonstrations within Australia and international developments.
- Oxyfuel
- Chemical looping
- CO2 capture
- Fundamentals of turbulent combustion
Laboratories
The coal laboratory, one of the main research labortaries of the group has drop-tube furnaces, a pressurised wire-mesh reactor, a heated grid devolatilisation rig, a pressurised fluidised bed, Thermo-Mechanical Analysis, TGA and PTGA, as well as analytical instruments such as GSs, Micro-GCs, and GCMS. The group uses pilot-scale furnaces in other laboratories for coal utilisation experiments, including the ACIRL facility in Brisbane and the IHI rig in Aioi
Renewable energy sources, unlike fossil fuels, are not finite and hence can be utilised in a sustainable manner. Renewable resources are also CO2 neutral and as such do not have any global warming potential.
The RES laboratory has been dedicated to two large programs of study aiming at development of more efficient technologies for utilization of biomass and geothermal resources, respectively. Several projects are currently underway as part of these two programs of study.
These are:
- Development of a Novel Geothermal Power Cycle
- Development of a Novel Regenerator for Adapting Supercritical Cycles to Geothermal Power Applications
- Development of a Novel Desalination Process for Geothermal Resources
- Combustion Characteristics of Biomass Chars in Pressurised Circulating Fluidised Bed Reactors
- Gasification Characteristics of Australian Biomass Fuels in Fluidised Bed Reactors
- Burnout and Ash Issues Related to Co-Firing of Coal and Biomass in PF Boilers
- Methodologies to Interpret Trials of Coal/Biomass Co-firing