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Washington, D.C. - Sorbents to reduce pollutants from coal-fired power plants and a software tool that can be used to design advanced power plants with reduced cost, time, and technical risk have earned R&D 100 Awards for the Office of Fossil Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).
The annual awards, which are selected by an independent panel of judges and the editors of R&D Magazine, are presented to the 100 most technologically significant products to enter the marketplace in the past year. According to R&D Magazine, the judges look for products and processes "that can change people's lives for the better" and "improve the standard of living for large numbers of people." NETL's sorbents and software were developed as part of the laboratory's quest to provide clean, affordable, abundant, and secure energy for future generations of Americans.
"This is yet the latest example of how the Department of Energy and the National Laboratories are continuing to demonstrate world-class leadership in innovation, as we enhance our energy security, national security and economic competiveness," said James Slutz, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy.
The award-winning NETL sorbents capture mercury, arsenic, and selenium at high temperature at various stages in the integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) process. Compared to low-temperature capture by activated carbons, high-temperature capture of these trace elements retains the high thermal efficiency of IGCC power plants, which form part of a strategy to increase the use of the nation's abundant domestic coal reserves. The palladium-based sorbents have been licensed to Johnson Matthey, a world leader in catalyst manufacture, for commercial development and application.
NETL's Advanced Process Engineering Co-Simulator (APECS) is a one-of-a-kind software tool that provides high-fidelity process and equipment co-simulation together with seamless data/model management throughout a power plant's lifecycle. The process and energy industries can deploy APECS - which is built on the integrated access, workflow, and data services of the ANSYS Engineering Knowledge Manager(TM) as a complete engineering solution to foster rapid technology development, reduce design times for pilot- and demonstration-scale facilities, and lower the cost and technical risk in realizing the high-efficiency, near-zero emission plants of the future.
The award winners will be featured in the September issue of R&D Magazine and honored at an awards banquet in October at Chicago's Navy Pier. |
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