One of today's pressing issues associated with fossil fuel consumption is how to curb greenhouse gas emissions, chiefly CO₂. NETL research focuses on ways to capture CO₂ from power plant fuel streams and flue stack emissions, and safely store (or sequester) it into geological formations such as coal bed strata , natural gas fields, or saline formations.

NETL's Manometric Sorption Test Facility aids these efforts by applying elevated temperature (from 55ºC to 300ºC) and pressure (up to 3,000 psig) to coal samples. Under these conditions, researchers study changes to the CO₂ or other fluids being absorbed or adsorbed by the sample, all with a precision of 0.1 psi. In this manner, the sorbent capacity of a particular coal sample can be calculated and its usefulness for future carbon sequestration can be gauged.

NETL has a wide range of analytical and diagnostic instrumentation available to support this type of analysis.

Manometric/Volumetric Apparatus

• Reference and sample cells (50 cc)
• Constant temperature bath (± 0.01 ºC)
• Vacuum pump
• Gas regulator
• Syringe pump
• Data acquisition board
• Computer interface

This facility is used for characterization of the sorption capacity of coals

The manometric/volumetric apparatus includes the reference (R) and sample (S) cells, a
constant temperature bath (B), a vacuum pump (V), a gas regulator (G), a syringe pump, and
a data acquisition board (D). The measurements of the temperature (T) and the pressure (P)
of the sorbent in the cells are used to determine the mass of the fluid sorbed by the sample.

For more information contact Vyacheslav Romanov