Clean coal studies in European energy award
By far the most difficult area of R&D in Australia: Dr Domazetis and PhD scholar Pietro Barilla working at the University.
Australian research into new and unique technology to turn low-rank coals into a much-improved and far more environmentally-friendly fuel for power generation and catalytic coal gasifi cation was earlier this year invited to take part in a major European energy prize.
Developed and owned by Clean Coal Technology Pty Ltd, the project has had its research base at La Trobe University for the past decade. Led by Dr George Domazetis, the company’s Managing Director, it was in the running for the ‘New Frontiers of Hydrocarbons’ prize, the €300,000 top category in the Italian-based Eni Awards.
Dr Domazetis, a La Trobe PhD graduate and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry, says low-rank coals (brown coal, lignite and subbituminous coal) constitute about half of the world’s coal resources and are the cheapest to mine.
Using state-of-the-art research in the chemical and physical sciences, the project has involved extensive studies into the properties and quality of low-rank coals and a range of processing problems as part of an overall ‘coherent’ research strategy into cleaner energy.
The result, he says, is a technology that can improve coal-fired power generation effi ciency to 40-50 per cent (from the present 30 percent) and thermal efficiency up to 90 per cent while cutting greenhouse emissions. It removes ash that fouls power station boilers and, using catalysts, can produce hydrogen by steam gasification.
Dr Domazetis is the driver and originator of the project. Other team members are Reader in Chemistry, Dr Bruce James, Honorary Research Fellow in Physics, Dr John Liesegang, and two PhD scholars in chemistry, Monthida Raoarun and Pietro Barilla. Dr James has been involved with the chemistry and analytical aspects, and Dr Liesegang with solid-state physical measurements and instrumentation.
About a dozen La Trobe scientists and postgraduate students have worked on the project during the last decade, including members of the University’s Centre for Materials and Surface Science and Environmental Geoscience.
Dr Domazetis brought the project to La Trobe because, he says, the University ‘had the right fi t of expertise and instrumentation.’ Since then, it has grown from dealing with brown coal to all low-rank coals in the world. Dr Domazetis has also carried out leading-edge quantum mechanics molecular coal modelling studies on catalytic gasifi cation, supported by both the Victorian and Australian partnerships for advanced computing (APAC and VPAC).
‘This, and the excellent PhD research in the Department of Chemistry, has enabled signifi cant progress on producing hydrogen from coal and steam,’ he says.
Coal has a problematic standing among fossil fuels, says Dr Domazetis, who advocates producing cleaner energy by using less coal more efficiently, rather than using more coal and energy by embarking on carbon sequestration from low-efficient power stations.
‘Natural gas is processed to remove impurities; oil refi neries produce various fuels for specifi c applications but, in the 21st century, coal alone is still being used “as-mined”.’
Dr Domazetis says at the heart of the project is a unique design for a coal processing vessel, coated with acid resistant linings to handle low quality coal at any level of acidity. A number of cleaning cycles then wash out all dissolved salts to produce coal with levels of ash down to as little as a few parts per million.
‘The process uses low-cost heat and can cheaply reduce moisture. It also adds catalysts to low-rank coals for steam gasification. This technology produces more hydrogen, and may be developed further into zero emissions plants, because carbon dioxide is separated and is not released into the atmosphere.’
Withescalating demand for energy and great environmental concern over the use of dirty coal, Dr Domazetis says recognition of cleaner coal research at La Trobe, by progressing to the fi nals list in the Eni Awards, was very pleasing. ‘There were close to 500 entries in this year’s awards,’ he says. ‘We are very confi dent about the quality of our work and were very excited that it had got so far.’
However, he says the coal mining industry might have little interest in a process that would reduce demand for its product, and he describes the field as ‘by far the most difficult R&D in Australia’. Undaunted, he is seeking investment to build a pilot plant as part of his company’s commercialisation strategy.
Before founding Clean Coal Technology Pty Ltd, Dr Domazetis was a Research Fellow at the Australian National University, and worked as a Senior Research Scientist with the former State Electricity Commission of Victoria for about 13 years.
Support for the research has come mainly from La Trobe University, including its Industry Collaborative Grant Scheme, as well as from APAC and VPAC.
Eni is a multi-national energy corporation based in Italy. Its awards encourage better use of energy resources, promote environmental studies and reward new researchers. Dr Domazetis says the previous year’s awards were presented at the Accademia dei Lincei, with the President of Italy as patron. The winners were from the USA and Germany.