Particulate Hot Gas Stream Cleanup Technical Issues

The nature of the collected ash has been identified as an issue creating barriers to the commercialization of advanced particle control technologies. Since most of the emphasis and extended operation of Hot Gas Stream Cleanup (HGCU) facilities have been with ceramic candle filters, problems with ash characteristics can be understood in terms of their effects on these control devices. This project is designed to identify the ways ash characteristics affect advanced particle control technologies, to construct and maintain a data base of HGCU ashes and their measured characteristics, and to relate these characteristics to the operation and performance of these facilities. The key characteristics of the collected ash are the morphology of the overall ash aggregate (porosity, geometry of the pores, specific surface area, etc.), and the cohesivity of the aggregate. Our data base currently comprises 242 ash samples from 12 combustion and gasification (HGCU) sources