Economic assessment of coal-burning locomotives: Topical report

Technical Report · Sat Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 1986

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/7018157· OSTI ID:7018157

The General Electric Company embarked upon a study to evaluate various alternatives for the design and manufacture a coal fired locomotive considering various prime movers, but retaining the electric drive transmission. The initial study was supported by the Burlington-Northern and Norfolk-Southern railroads, and included the following alternatives: coal fired diesel locomotive; direct fired gas turbine locomotives; direct fired gas turbine locomotive with steam injection; raw coal gasifier gas turbine locomotive; and raw coal fluid bed steam turbine locomotive. All alternatives use the electric drive transmission and were selected for final evaluation. The first three would use a coal water slurry as a fuel, which must be produced by new processing plants. Therefore, use of a slurry would require a significant plant capital investment. The last two would use classified run-of-the-mine (ROM) coal with much less capital expenditure. Coal fueling stations would be required but are significantly lower in capital cost than a coal slurry plant. For any coal fired locomotive to be commercially viable, it must pass the following criteria: be technically feasible and environmentally acceptable; meet railroads' financial expectations; and offer an attractive return to the locomotive manufacturer. These three criteria are reviewed in the report.

• Research Organization: General Electric Co., Erie, PA (USA). Transportation Systems Business Operation
• DOE Contract Number: AC21-85MC22181
• OSTI ID: 7018157
• Report Number(s): DOE/MC/22181-2536; ON: TI88001032
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Paper copy only, copy does not permit microfiche production
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
DIESEL ENGINES
USES
LOCOMOTIVES
COAL-FIRED GAS TURBINES
COAL
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COST
DESIGN
EFFICIENCY
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL CONSUMPTION
GAS TURBINES
MAINTENANCE
SLURRIES
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
DISPERSIONS
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
ENERGY SOURCES
ENGINES
FUELS
HEAT ENGINES
INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES
MACHINERY
MATERIALS
MIXTURES
SUSPENSIONS
TRAINS
TURBINES
TURBOMACHINERY
VEHICLES
330102* - Internal Combustion Engines- Diesel
330103 - Internal Combustion Engines- Turbine
014000 - Coal
Lignite
& Peat- Combustion
330800 - Emission Control- Alternative Fuels