The Utah Clean Coal Program recently hosted a meeting on the Future of Coal in a Carbon-Constrained World. Click here for more information.
The Utah Clean Coal Program's mission is the generation of scientific and technical breakthroughs that allow coal to be used as an energy source in a carbon-constrained world. Key research areas will target the elimination of pollutants and greenhouse gases, and safeguarding human health and the environment. Building on the existing core competencies developed over a long history of basic and applied research in coal science and combustion processes, the Utah Program will serve as a State and national resource with an international reach.
Coal is the nation's largest fossil-fuel resource and is responsible for over 50% of the United State's electricity generation. With a 250-year reserve/production ratio of this domestic, low-cost fuel, the U.S. is likely to continue using coal as a major component of its energy portfolio for the foreseeable future. The Program will conduct research on supporting the development of technologies for the clean and efficient utilization of coal and options for the mitigation of CO2 emissions, in the eventuality that constraints on carbon emissions are imposed. The magnitude of the CO2 mitigation problem will require a multitude of responses, including increased efficiency, co-firing with biomass, retrofitting of existing power plants, and CO2 capture and sequestration.
The Program will act as the focus for Utah-wide research activities contributing to the clean utilization of coal. It will focus on eight program areas: simulation, mercury emissions control, oxy-fuel combustion, gasification, sequestration, material investigations, chemical looping combustion, and student research experiences covering applications that range from addressing near-term problems of having existing boilers meet new regulations and longer term problems associated with potential requirement to capture and sequester CO2. The Program is also committed to providing students prepared to develop coal utilization technology needed to satisfy environmental constraints that we will face in the future.
The co-directors of the Program are Professor Ronald J. Pugmire (Chemical Engineering, Adjunct Professor of Chemistry, and Associate Vice President for Research) and Adel F. Sarofim (Presidential Professor, Chemical Engineering). The Program is organized within the Institute for Clean and Secure Energy (ICSE), directed by Professor Philip J. Smith, and within the College of Engineering.
