ADVANCED HOT GAS FILTER DEVELOPMENT

DuPont Lanxide Composites, Inc. undertook a sixty-month program, under DOE Contract DEAC21-94MC31214, in order to develop hot gas candle filters from a patented material technology know as PRD-66. The goal of this program was to extend the development of this material as a filter element and fully assess the capability of this technology to meet the needs of Pressurized Fluidized Bed Combustion (PFBC) and Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power generation systems at commercial scale. The principal objective of Task 3 was to build on the initial PRD-66 filter development, optimize its structure, and evaluate basic material properties relevant to the hot gas filter application. Initially, this consisted of an evaluation of an advanced filament-wound core structure that had been designed to produce an effective bulk filter underneath the barrier filter formed by the outer membrane. The basic material properties to be evaluated (as established by the DOE/METC materials working group) would include mechanical, thermal, and fracture toughness parameters for both new and used material, for the purpose of building a material database consistent with what is being done for the alternative candle filter systems. Task 3 was later expanded to include analysis of PRD-66 candle filters, which had been exposed to actual PFBC conditions, development of an improved membrane, and installation of equipment necessary for the processing of a modified composition. Task 4 would address essential technical issues involving the scale-up of PRD-66 candle filter manufacturing from prototype production to commercial scale manufacturing. The focus would be on capacity (as it affects the ability to deliver commercial order quantities), process specification (as it affects yields, quality, and costs), and manufacturing systems (e.g. QA/QC, materials handling, parts flow, and cost data acquisition). Any filters fabricated during this task would be used for product qualification tests being conducted by Westinghouse at Foster-Wheeler's Pressurized Circulating Fluidized Bed (PCFBC) test facility in Karhula, Finland. Task 5 was designed to demonstrate the improvements implemented in Task 4 by fabricating fifty 1.5-meter hot gas filters. These filters were to be made available for DOE-sponsored field trials at the Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF), operated by Southern Company Services in Wilsonville, Alabama