The U.S. Dept. of Energy announced on Dec. 27 the selection of five projects totaling nearly $12 million for improving near-zero emission, coal-based power generation technologies. The DOE is providing more than $9.3 million in funding, with industry partners contributing more than $2.3 million. The agency says research will emphasize President Bush's energy goals of addressing global climate change, enhancing energy security, ushering in a hydrogen economy, and building the FutureGen plant.

DOE Next generation of coal plans will have advanced emission controls.

The projects include:

Windsor, Conn.-based Alstom Power's $1.49-million, two-year project will develop advanced sensing and control systems for hybrid combustion-gasification chemical looping. It hopes to achieve a more reliable, economical and emissions-optimized future plant process.

Barberton, Oh.-based Babcock & Wilcox Co.'s $2.6-million, three-year project will develop modeling that predicts corrosion rates of boiler tubes under low-NOx corrosion. Eight common coals will be tested to estimate corrosion rates using different variables including chemicals and temperature.

Niskayuna, N.Y.-based General Electric's $3-million, three-year project will perform computer research on coal gasification plants, and install and develop a harsh environment sensor package at the Tampa Electric Company Polk Power Station. The collected temperature data will be used for model validation.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Electric Power Research Institute's $2.49-million, three-year project will develop advanced nanostructure coatings to improve boiler tubing corrosion and erosion performance. The coatings will undergo testing in simulated boiler environments using coals from three different regions.

University of Colorado at Boulder's $1.99-million, three-year project will develop a gas-solid model, using new methodologies tailored to polydisperse systems, targeted specifically at materials with differences in size and/or density. Novel aspects include incorporating the effects of random particle motion between systems.

For more information visit the U.S. DOE Fossil Energy web site at: http://www.fossil.energy.gov.