Low rank Alaska coal combustion

The Arctic Energy Technology Development Laboratory initially awarded a seed grant of $50,000 in 2002-2003 to test if the power plant performance varies when the particle size distribution of coal fed into the burners is made slightly coarser.  The team initially consisted of Ganguli (PI), Bandopadhyay (co-PI) and Wilson (co-PI). Dr. Wilson, however, is no longer with UAF and the project.

Encouraged by the initial results, AETDL fully funded the project for a more thorough testing of hypothesis. The project expired in 2008. The photo shows Dinesh Malav and Sridhar Dutta (both graduate students) collecting a sample from a port, while I try to look busy (in orange hardhat). The photo was taken by Dr. Terril Wilson.   Click here for the final report.   

Testing of Ultra Clean Diesel: This project was funded by DOE through ICRC.  Syntroleum Corp has developed an ultra clean diesel that was tested for emissions on the bus fleet at the Denali National Park.  The project PI was Dr. Sukmar Bandopadhyay, while I was a co-PI.  The total budget for the project is (2002-2005) ~250K. Project partners include ICRC, Aramark and West Virginia University

Estimation of Gravel Resource Potential of Southeast Chukchi Sea Continental Shelf off Shismaref, North Seward Peninsula, Alaska : This $298,000 (2002-2003) project was funded by the Minerals Management Service to identify and characterize the gravel resources in the outer continental shelf of the State of Alaska.  The project consists of Bandopadhyay (PI), Ganguli (co-PI) and Naidu (co-PI).

Meeting Coal Specs on a Per Car Basis: This project deals with the problem of meeting customer specifications on a per car basis rather than on a train load basis. The project aim was to develop and evaluate a control algorithm to work with run-of-mine and clean coal, and uses on-line analyzer quality measurements as the basis for control. I worked alone in this partly funded research (I received $14000 from the Natural Resources Fund of the University of Alaska in 3/2002).

SAG Mill Control at Fort Knox mine: Dr. Rajive Ganguli is working on Semi-Autogenous Grinding (SAG) mill control and optimization at the Fort Knox mine. SAG milling is a very expensive component of mining costs. His real-time control algorithm is currently interfacing with the mill's process information system (vendor: OSISoft). He is being assisted in this project (other SAG related projects) by his doctoral student Mr. Sridhar Dutta (who also interned at Fort Knox this past summer) and Fort Knox staff, especially Mr. Keith Palchikoff and Mr. Charlie Wells.

Calibration of On-line Analyzers: My colleague Prof. Dan Walsh, co-PI and me (PI) are working to improve the calibration of on-line analyzers. We will use neural networks for calibration in this project (2002-2004). The funding agencies are: DOE ($158,227) with cost share from Usibelli Coal Mine ($77,582), Golden Valley Electric Association ($20,500) and UAF( $79,674).   The work on this project constituted the M.S. (Mining Engineering) research thesis for Mr. Shaohai Yu.   Click here for more information on the project.

Enhancement of the Submarine Tailings Disposal Expert System Knowledgebase: The previously developed expert system will be enhanced and converted into a Visual Basic Application to enable wider distribution.  The Minerals Management Service has funded this project for one year (2002-2003) with a budget of $80,000.  The team consists of Ganguli (PI), Bandopadhyay (co-PI) and Wilson (co-PI).  Mr. Sridhar Dutta, Ph.D. student, did the Visual Basic programming.

Marine Disposal of Mine Tailings: I built an expert system for sub-marine tailings disposal, in LEVEL5, with my colleagues Drs. Sukumar Bandopadhyay, PI, and Terril Wilson, co-PI. The project was funded by the Marine Minerals Technology Center. Budget $40,000 from 1998-2001.

In the area of physical segregation of coal.  Using techniques such as Time Series Analysis and Statistical Process Control (SPC), we developed algorithms (patent awarded in January 2004) for use with on-line ash analyzers for physical segregation of coal.

Used Industrial Production Simulation Techniques to optimize production at Superior Cable's Cable Twisting Operation.  Simulation software GPSS/H was used for the purpose.

Used geostatistics techniques (conditional simulation) to optimize soil sampling densities and block sizes in site specific agriculture.

Used photo-elastic and finite element methods to study the effect of layering on stress transfer in multi-seam coal mines.