Coal-Water Fuel Production

Natural energy reserves are unevenly distributed, making shortages of energy resources common in many countries. This is an incentive for three things: looking for less expensive imports, saving energy and developing alternative heat and energy sources.

According to industry professionals, coal-water fuel (also known as CWF or coal slurry) is a promising product. CWF is a mixture of finely dispersed coal in water with a chemical additive. Attempts to replace regular energy sources with CWF were first suggested in the 1970s in the times of the oil crisis. These efforts were undertaken by the scientists in China, Japan, the US and Sweden. Japan and China are still developing this fuel type.

Here are some of the benefits of coal slurry that make it a genuine alternative to traditional energy supplies:

• low combustion temperature (reduction of NOx emissions by 70%);
• fire and explosion safety;
• process characteristics identical to other liquid fuels;
• long storage and transportation stability;
• switching heat and power plants to CWF requires no significant changes of the existing infrastructure;
• per ton fuel cost reduction;
• power generation cost reduction.

Since CWF contains 60-70% of finely dispersed 42…250 μm coal particles, its production occurs in special mills. Traditional coal slurry production involves ball and bar wet mills with average power costs of 86 to 248 kW×h per ton.

The high power costs are due to the low efficiency of these units, which are are also quite cumbersome.

GlobeCore has successfully tested our vortex layer technology for pulverization of coal with subsequent production of coal slurry. Detailed descriptions of our tests and their results can be found in two videos posted below. Among other benefits, our process requires a lot less energy than the current  technologies.

GlobeCore manufactures vortex layer units both in stock and custom versions. The equipment can be implemented in various fuel systems, such as preparation of powdered solid fuel for combustion, coal slurry production, combustion of coal with biomass etc.

GlobeCore equipment can be used either in absolutely new systems or retrofitted into existing processing lines.