TY - GEN
T1 - Extraction of nuclear fuels from coal using microwave induced plasma gasification and electromagnetic plasma separation processes
AU - Kumar, Raghav
AU - Panicker, Philip K.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 IEEE.
PY - 2017/9/14
Y1 - 2017/9/14
N2 - Coal is till today the most commonly used fuel worldwide for electricity generation, with the largest consumers being China, USA and India respectively. Coal contains small amounts of radioactive elements such as uranium, thorium, potassium-40, radium and radon, in the range of a few parts per million, which make their removal difficult and economically unfeasible through conventional industrial technologies. The concentrations gets amplified in the coal ash (fly ash), thereby presenting environmental and human health risks. In this preliminary paper, we propose an innovative clean coal technology, namely microwave induced plasma gasification (MIPG) to turn coal into syngas, while the molten residue is sent to a microwave-heated electromagnetic plasma separator for isolation of radioactive elements. With the adoption of this technology, coal producing and consuming nations will be able to satisfy a large portion of their nuclear fuel requirements from clean coal.
AB - Coal is till today the most commonly used fuel worldwide for electricity generation, with the largest consumers being China, USA and India respectively. Coal contains small amounts of radioactive elements such as uranium, thorium, potassium-40, radium and radon, in the range of a few parts per million, which make their removal difficult and economically unfeasible through conventional industrial technologies. The concentrations gets amplified in the coal ash (fly ash), thereby presenting environmental and human health risks. In this preliminary paper, we propose an innovative clean coal technology, namely microwave induced plasma gasification (MIPG) to turn coal into syngas, while the molten residue is sent to a microwave-heated electromagnetic plasma separator for isolation of radioactive elements. With the adoption of this technology, coal producing and consuming nations will be able to satisfy a large portion of their nuclear fuel requirements from clean coal.
KW - clean coal
KW - microwave
KW - plasma gasification
KW - plasma separation
KW - radioactivity in coal
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85032349160&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85032349160&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ICSGSC.2017.8038543
DO - 10.1109/ICSGSC.2017.8038543
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85032349160
T3 - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid and Smart Cities, ICSGSC 2017
SP - 22
EP - 27
BT - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid and Smart Cities, ICSGSC 2017
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2017 IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid and Smart Cities, ICSGSC 2017
Y2 - 23 July 2017 through 26 July 2017
ER -