LAPSE:2023.33745
Published Article
LAPSE:2023.33745
Model-Free Control of UCG Based on Continual Optimization of Operating Variables: An Experimental Study
Ján Kačur, Marek Laciak, Milan Durdán, Patrik Flegner
April 24, 2023
The underground coal gasification (UCG) represents an effective coal mining technology, where coal is transformed into syngas underground. Extracted syngas is cleaned and processed for energy production. Various gasification agents can be injected into an underground georeactor, e.g., air, technical oxygen, or water steam, to ensure necessary temperature and produce syngas with the highest possible calorific value. This paper presents an experimental study where dynamic optimization of operating variables maximizes syngas calorific value during gasification. Several experiments performed on an ex situ reactor show that the optimization algorithm increased syngas calorific value. Three operation variables, i.e., airflow, oxygen flow, and syngas exhaust, were continually optimized by an algorithm of gradient method. By optimizing the manipulation variables, the calorific value of the syngas was increased by 5 MJ/m3, both in gasification with air and additional oxygen. Furthermore, a higher average calorific value of 4.8−5.1 MJ/m3 was achieved using supplementary oxygen. The paper describes the proposed ex situ reactor, the mathematical background of the optimization task, and results obtained during optimal control of coal gasification.
Keywords
calorific value, control algorithm, operating variables, optimal control, Optimization, Syngas, underground coal gasification (UCG)
Suggested Citation
Kačur J, Laciak M, Durdán M, Flegner P. Model-Free Control of UCG Based on Continual Optimization of Operating Variables: An Experimental Study. (2023). LAPSE:2023.33745
Author Affiliations
Kačur J: Institute of Control and Informatization of Production Processes, Faculty BERG, Technical University of Košice, Němcovej 3, 042 00 Košice, Slovakia [ORCID]
Laciak M: Institute of Control and Informatization of Production Processes, Faculty BERG, Technical University of Košice, Němcovej 3, 042 00 Košice, Slovakia [ORCID]
Durdán M: Institute of Control and Informatization of Production Processes, Faculty BERG, Technical University of Košice, Němcovej 3, 042 00 Košice, Slovakia
Flegner P: Institute of Control and Informatization of Production Processes, Faculty BERG, Technical University of Košice, Němcovej 3, 042 00 Košice, Slovakia
Journal Name
Energies
Volume
14
Issue
14
First Page
4323
Year
2021
Publication Date
2021-07-18
Published Version
ISSN
1996-1073
Version Comments
Original Submission
Other Meta
PII: en14144323, Publication Type: Journal Article
Record Map
Published Article

LAPSE:2023.33745
This Record
External Link

doi:10.3390/en14144323
Publisher Version
Download
Files
[Download 1v1.pdf] (2.8 MB)
Apr 24, 2023
Main Article
License
CC BY 4.0
Meta
Record Statistics
Record Views
103
Version History
[v1] (Original Submission)
Apr 24, 2023
 
Verified by curator on
Apr 24, 2023
This Version Number
v1
Citations
Most Recent
This Version
URL Here
https://psecommunity.org/LAPSE:2023.33745
 
Original Submitter
Auto Uploader for LAPSE
Links to Related Works
Directly Related to This Work
Publisher Version