New science strives to use fast gas potential

Press, 23 April 1980, Page 9

New science strives to use fast gas potential

NZPA Butte Montana y A phenomenon (at once i puzzled astronomel may be a harnessed io poy r a and turn the whds of industry before the fad of the r century. / 4 F Whether it tes could c depend largely e tests to if begin later this/ear at a j United States fovernment research plant pt outside s the mountain-rijed copper- t mining city of Efte in Mon- c tana. / . 1 That is whs scientists c are coal-fired I generator base! on the in- c fant science d magnetohy- J drodvnamics, MD- I The MHD frocess gen- t erates electric! by forcingi hot gas throul a magnetic; e field. Millions? dollars and!!

years of. study have gone into MHD research at laboratories in the United States and the Soviet Union. In America, the Department of Energy will try to pull the science together afid develop the technology to prove MHD’s commercial potential. Government-financed research directly related to the Butte project also is being conducted at two plants in Tennessee. The second phase of the project, to start in 1986, calls for construction of an MHD pilot plant about 10 times as large as the test facility now being built in Butte. The Department of Energy expects to spend $lBOO million in the 1980 s to develop

the technology and says it will take 20 years to develop commercial-scale MHD plants. Scientists believe MHD plants should be more efficient than conventional fossil-fueled generators that extract only about 35 per cent of the energy from coal and natural gas. MHD plants should be able to raise power-plant efficiency to 55 per cent or more, they say. MHD’s greater efficiency is possible because heat from the fuel would be used twice. Gas from the combusted coal would first be shot through the magnetic field of an MHD generator to produce electricity,, then would heat the boilers of a conventional steam plant.