INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

1975 to 1981

• Contributed elutriation and attrition chapters to a DOE guidebook about sulfur control in fluidized bed combustors. Over five hundred copies of the report were distributed to DOE laboratories, universities, and commercial research facilities.
• Coordinated long-term (100 and 1000 hour) studies in the pilot plant combustor. Planned installation and operation of experimental equipment for the biology and material science divisions taking part in the study. The studies demonstrated a 40 to 60 percent savings in limestone used by the fluidized bed combustor.
• Planned two projects with outside contractors.
• Directed studies of hydration of spent limestone at the Grand Forks Energy Technology Center. Increased limestone conversion by 200 percent.
• Directed the installation of an experimental $100,000 laser Doppler particle size analysis system at the Westinghouse Waltz Mill facility. Trained two senior engineers and other Westinghouse staff in equipment operation. Completed the installation in one week. Westinghouse personnel completed a two month test of the instrument.
• Studied defluidization during reductive decomposition of sulfated limestone. Defined conditions causing catastrophic failure of the fluidized bed.
• Developed FORTRAN process models for fluidized bed combustion and sorbent regeneration systems. Process costs and flowsheets computed using these models showed economic viability of fluidized bed burners for an 810 MWatt electric power plant.
• Carried out experimental studies of a system for regenerating limestone for recycle to a fluidized bed combustor. Demonstrated that limestone requirements could be cut by a factor of six with a 3 percent increase in coal consumption.
• Specified $100,000 of analytical, control, and data acquisition equipment for a new laboratory fluidized bed pilot plant. The control systems allowed twenty-four hour operation of the fluidized bed combustor for long-term experimental studies.
• Developed and tested the PL/1 data acquisition and analysis programs for the new laboratory.
• Evaluated two laser particle size analyzers for on-line analysis in the fluidized bed pilot plant. The evaluation showed the Mie scattering instrument suitable for on-line measurements at high dust loading in the flue gas. The first-generation laser Doppler instrument had a more limited range of operation.
• Extended FORTRAN and PL/1 programs for data acquisition in a fluidized bed pilot plant. The added capabilities speeded preparation of graphs for final technical reports.