DoE Funding Opportunity - Instrumentation, Sensors, and Control Systems

Computational Approaches for the Design of Sensor Networks and Process Control for Coal Gasification or Oxygen Enhanced Combustion Systems - (A) Modeling and simulation of coal gasifiers and oxygen enhanced combustion systems are under development to aid in the design and evaluation of these systems and plants. This topic seeks to extend or develop additional computational capabilities that will facilitate the analysis and design of sensor and control systems that enable these power systems. The development of these tools and analysis must consider the performance goals and constraints of the power system/plant. Two primary challenges of these systems are the desire to be fuel flexible and responsive to load changes. Attention to sensor type, placement, and number of sensors as well as the approach for control of the system are important factors for inclusion in the computationally-based research. (B) Instrumentation and sensors play a key role in describing a process or system. In the case of advanced coal-fired power generation systems, select instrumentation and sensors are not available to provide the data needed to describe or anticipate process changes. This subtopic seeks development of novel approaches for those measurements that are viewed to be of broad interest and high priority. Specifically, developments for on-line/at-line analytical techniques for coal quality and/or flow rate are sought. Read more