The Department of Gas, Coke and Air Protection during the fifty six years of its existence has undergone very important developments in its research scope. In the beginning, the research work was focused on high temperature carbonization of local hard coals and the soft coals gasification by the steam/oxygen mixtures in small scale plants of local reach, later in pressurized moving bed generators supplying the town gas most of the Czech Republic, further also on the de-toxication of town gas, the processing of the liquid by-products of high pressure gasification, steam reforming of natural gas, detailed analyses of fuel gases and catalytic cracking processes. The research in the Department currently consists of projects in energetics, economics and environmental fields with number of them having international character.
Present research (Contemporary research)
To support the possibilities of increasing the utilization on non-traditional energy sources, the research and development work at the department is currently aimed to the field of biomass and waste - especially the projects of gasification and pyrolysis pilot units with fluidized bed.
In the field of the brown coal utilization we continue in the project of decrease of the tar production during the combustion of the brown coal with atypically high tar production.
The optimization of utilization of our natural gas pipeline system is in the work of department represented by research of physical and transport properties of model mixtures of gaseous fuels under high pressures which is necessary for application of the modern methods for the measurement of the consumption and flow of gases. Research is aimed also at data collection of programmes for simulation of gas transmission and distribution and at modelling of pipeline and gas storage accidents.
In co-operation with the Department of Power Engineering there is taking place the unique research of the pipe corrosion under stress. Firm foundations were also laid for the research of natural gas drying by glycols under elevated pressure, de-sulfurization of natural gas by solid sorbents and natural gas odorization by sulfur free compounds.
The study of the removal of volatile organic compounds from the emission aerosols is aimed at processes of catalytic combustion, bio-filtration and at adsorption based on active carbon and zeolitic materials. On laboratory as well as industrial scale, various applications of adsorbents for hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds removal are observed together with the possibilities of increase of adsorption capacity of these sorbents.
In the departmental laboratories there are further improved the measurement instruments enabling the observation of emissions from various sources in very great detail. There is also pursued the possibility of rational decreasing of SO2 emissions by wet as well as dry methods and the same for further pollutants during different stages of various industrial processes.
In the field of the imissions study the attention is focused on the mechanisms of ozone formation and on observation of concentrations of selected group of analytes in the discrete samples of air at the high elevation locations placed on the selected TV transmitters in Czech Republic with the aim of the determination of direction of movement of inorganic as well as organic air contaminants over the territory of Czech Republic.
Supposed future research activities at the department:
• Chemical and technological aspects of natural gas utilization.
• Biomass processing (gasification, pyrolysis, biomass using for the heat and electricity production).
• Intensification of wet limestone process for flue gas desulfurization.
• Emissions produced by the combustion of solid fuels in small hearths.
• System of characterization of the influence of mining, cleaning and energetics processing of brown coal on the air quality on regional scale.
• Adsorption gas cleaning.
• Development and verification of new procedures for the emissions and imisions measurement.
• Development of new types of nano-catalysts for the gas cleaning.
Contact:
Assoc. Prof. Karel Ciahotný
+420 220 44 4228
E-mail: Karel.Ciahotny@vscht.cz
Internet: