COAL-FUELED DIESELS: SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT

摘要

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy has sponsored research in the area of coal-fueled diesel engines since the late 1970's. The program began as an exploratory effort and has grown into a proof-of-concept program that includes several major medium speed diesel engine manufacturers. Those manufacturers have identified the utility, industrial cogeneration, and transportation markets as areas in which expensive clean distillate fuel may be displaced by low-cost, domestically abundant coal. The development of a coal-fueled diesel engine system will require the parallel development of coal fuels, engine components, wear and emission control systems, and a support infrastructure. Because of notable success in earlier projects of the coal-fueled diesel program, the DOE's Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC) recently expanded the program with the award of contracts for two 5-year, proof-of-concept engine development projects and one proof-of-principle project. These major projects will build on the results of past work to complete development of technology for the commercialization of coal-fueled diesel engines. This paper summarizes progress in the DOE program and planned research to overcome technical and economic barriers to that commercialization.