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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Air quality and the environmental effects from an underground coal-gasification test

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6433812

In-situ coal gasification is a new technology currently under development by the United States Department of Energy (DOE). The Pricetown I field test is part of this continuing effort and was performed by DOE's Morgantown Energy Technology Center with Mound Facility providing the major instrumental and field crew support. The use of eastern bituminous coal resources with high sulfur content could be limited because of environmental regulations. Consequently an examination of the impact of sulfur containing and other possible gaseous components from the in-situ gasification on air quality is desirable from both a environmental and economical viewpoint. Using fast response analytical systems and real-time data acquisition a high density data base was acquired for 17 gaseous components of the product gas stream, including SO/sub 2/, H/sub 2/S, COS, and HCN. The data show that almost all gaseous sulfur from the bituminous coal was emitted as H/sub 2/S. The SO/sub 2/ and COS values rarely exceeded the background of the instruments although the COS values did rise to about 100 ppM during the gasification phase. Except for one short period when values rose to 60 ppM, the HCN similarly stayed at the instrument background level of about 1 ppM. Because proven technology to clean H/sub 2/S from gas streams is available, the Pricetown test indicates that in-situ gasification of high sulfur bituminous coal on a commercial scale should not contribute to deterioration in air quality.

Research Organization:
Mound Facility, Miamisburg, OH (USA); Department of Energy, Morgantown, WV (USA). Morgantown Energy Technology Center
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-76DP00053
OSTI ID:
6433812
Report Number(s):
MLM-2837(OP); CONF-810607-4; ON: DE81023281
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English