Engineer, design, construct, test and evaluate a pressurized fluidized bed pilot plant using high sulfur coal for production of electric power. Phase I. Preliminary engineering. Topical report, 1 March 1976-1 June 1977

A promising approach for clean, cost-competitive, electric power generation from coal with improved power cycle efficiency involves the application of a pressurized fluidized bed (PFB) combustor to a combined cycle. Based on a conceptual design of a 500 MW base load power station, a configuration for a pilot electric plant was selected which will use high sulfur (> 31%) coal in the presence of a sulfur sorbent (dolomite) material. The gas turbine in this system provides one-third of its compressor airflow to the fluidized bed for coal combustion and the balance of flow to the in-bed heat exchanger. The pilot plant will have the capacity for generating an equivalent of 13 MW. The gas turbine provides over 7 MW of electric power and the steam generated by the waste heat recovery boiler is 58,000 lb/hour. The plant equipment is over 40 percent of the physical size of the commercial plant design. The pilot plant will be a conversion of an existing Total Energy System located at the Wood-Ridge, New Jersey manufacturing facility of Curtiss-Wright. This report describes the plant arrangement, the equipment design configuration, and plant performance.