Phone : (352) 392-2001 Fax : (352) 392-2003 Email: aesgreen@ufl.edu

#317, Bryant Space Science Center, PO Box 112050,Gainesville - FL 32611-2050

A.E.S. Green, director

ICAAS was established in 1970 as an interdisciplinary community of scholars seeking advanced solutions for anthropogenic emission problems. Early ICAAS studies contributed to the recognition of the stratospheric ozone depletion problem, the climate change problem and the development of pollution prevention as applied to thermal processes. In "Coal Burning Issues" [U.Fl. Press, 1980] ICAAS concluded that many energy-environmental problems could be mitigated by co-combustion of domestic fuels. This strategy led to the book "An Alternative to Oil, Burning Coal with Gas" [U.FL. Press, 1981] and the formation of the Clean Combustion Technology Laboratory (CCTL). CCTL’s goals were to reduce pollutants from industrial and utility boilers and increase our national reliance on domestic fuels, such as coal, natural gas, biomass and municipal solid waste. In 1988 the CCTL received a National Energy Innovation Award and a Florida Governor’s Energy Award for industrial scale co-firing R&D at the steam plant of Tacachale, a nearby state institution.

Since 1990 most CCTL studies have been on gasifying or liquifying domestic solid fuels by indirectly heated conversion systems and to clean the output fuel for use in energy efficient gas turbine systems or fuel cells. As a result of papers presented and panel sessions organized for the Coal, Biomass and Alternate Fuels committee sessions of International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI) conferences the CCTL has developed a unique position among academic institutions in the USA in its pursuit of fuel blending in thermal gasifiers/liquifiers. With energy costs so low in the USA the CCTL is also investigating additional services that "omnivorous" feedstock converters can perform including toxic and pollution minimization in thermo-chemical disposal of waste.(see conceptual diagram below). Thus the CCTL is conducting R&D on converters for various feedstock and combinations that yield clean output gaseous or liquid fuels as well as useful chemicals and chars. In recent papers we describe potential application of such systems: for converting biomass with coal and other domestic fuels into clean fuels, for the disposal of plants used for phytoremediation, and for solid waste disposal on long space missions. Current externally funded CCTL studies are: