By Andrea Gibson
Contributing writer
Research under way in a new Ohio University laboratory will allow engineers to develop technologies that could reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants.
The 3,000-square-foot ESP Lab, located in existing space in the University's Research and Technology Center and supported in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Coal Development Office, will house research on more efficient versions of the electrostatic precipitator (ESP), a device used in the exhaust systems of power plants to capture fine air pollutants and toxic heavy metals. New ESP designs could help coal, steel, paper and other industries meet forthcoming EPA emissions regulations and could make high-sulfur Ohio coal a more viable energy source for the nation's power plants.
The work, led by Professor of Mechanical Engineering Hajrudin Pasic, already has resulted in an ESP that uses flexible membranes to capture fly ash particles, which are produced when coal is burned for fuel. The device is an improvement over current ESPs, which use heavy, expensive steel plates to clean fly ash from the exhaust stream. Pasic and his colleagues patented the invention in May 2001 and recently sold the technology to SEI Inc. of Pensacola, Fla., for commercialization. SEI is building a pilot model for use in power plants.
Now, Pasic and more than a dozen Ohio University graduate students will use the laboratory space to examine other ways to make the ESP more environmentally efficient. Currently, the engineers are developing a multistage moving-platform ESP that would capture fly ash particles of all sizes from the exhaust stream, including heavy metals and mercury. A provisional patent is pending on the design.
The research, equipment and renovations of the laboratory, which previously housed the University's Institute for Corrosion and Multiphase Technology, are supported by a $225,000 grant from the U.S. EPA's Science to Achieve Results program, a $108,000 grant from the Ohio Board of Regents and funds from the Ohio Coal Development Office, as well as donations from NWL Transformers Inc. of New Jersey.
The new lab will allow engineers to build larger prototypes of ESP designs, which will provide a better measure of how the technologies would operate in an actual power plant, Pasic said. In his previous lab in the University's Stocker Center, the engineer was able to build only a 1 foot by 1 foot version of the membrane ESP -- far smaller than the actual device's 30-foot-long size. The new lab houses a larger scale, 6-foot-long version.
"This will give us some predictions of what will happen in a real-size ESP," Pasic said.
Paul Shapiro, senior environmental engineer for the U.S. EPA's Office of Research and Development, said research such as this can help the agency address health concerns associated with the release of air pollution from coal-fired power plants. And, he added, innovations in ESP design could help industries meet forthcoming EPA regulations on fine particle emissions.
"Having technology that will be available in the next few years when states and companies will need to meet compliance is very important," said Shapiro, who recently visited Ohio University for a tour of the ESP Lab.
The U.S. EPA has a rigorous review process for grant proposals, Shapiro added, and only high-quality projects, including Pasic's research, receive agency funding.
The laboratory also will contribute to Ohio's clean-coal efforts, said Jackie Bird, director of the Ohio Coal Development Office within the Ohio Department of Development.
"We're very excited about this new research asset for clean-coal technology within the state of Ohio," Bird said. "We're looking forward to the new ideas and processes that come from it."
