U of S Delegates Visit China for Joint Clean Coal Symposium

From April 26 to 28 delegates from the College of Engineering visited China for a China-Canada Joint Symposium on Clean Utilization of Coal in Taiyuan, Shanxi. The Symposium was a joint effort between the Key Laboratory of Coal Science and Technology, the Taiyuan University of Technology, the Ministry of Education and Shanxi Province, and the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan.

Workshops focused on promotion and awareness of the clean utilization of coal during gasification, pyrolysis and combustion. Symposium themes included the fundamental studies on coal conversions to value-added products; Coal combustion in power generation; The formation and treatment of the pollutants containing sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), mercury, volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) and particulate hazards in coal utilization; and gas purifications.

A portion of symposium funding was supplied through the International Science and Technology Partnership Program (ISTP), a not-for-profit organization mandated by governments to promote global research and development with the primary objective of strengthening Canada’s science and technology business to business relations.

Dr. Janusz Kozinski, Dean of the College of Engineering, said “This event marks an exciting milestone for us and our partners in China. The symposium speakers were all leading researchers on the topic of clean coal utilization and they presented very interesting processes and technologies in that regard. Our delegation also had many opportunities to idea-share and network at the symposium and during visits to a number of the universities and colleges in China. I would like to particularly thank Professor Hui Wang for organizing this event, as I am confident the results of our partnerships will prove to be extremely beneficial to our province, to Canada and to the future of clean coal use around the world.”

The theme of the symposium was “Responding to Challenges”, referring to the environmental challenges that come from coal utilization. In Canada, coal-fired power plants are major contributors of greenhouse gases (GHG). China has been investing into clean coal technology for some time, being regarded as one of the world’s leading emitters of GHG. It is reported that approximately 67 percent of China’s energy comes from coal, the greatest part of which is burned in outdated power plants that are primary contributors to GHG. Coal is still used in some home stoves for cooking and heating, as well as by coke makers, using processes that produce high levels of wasted heat, SO2, NOx, VOC’s and dust, leading to atmospheric brown clouds and other environmental hazards.

Representatives of the ISTP Partnership include Dean Janusz Kozinski, Professor Ajay Dalai, and Professor Hui Wang from the College of Engineering; Yongfeng Hu from the Canadian Light Source; Ramin Azargoha and Chunyu Xi, the researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering of U of S; Stan Shewchuk from the Saskatchewan Research Council; and Yan Liu from the University of Alberta.

Delegates representing the College of Engineering at the U of S, U of A, Saskatchewan Research Council and the Canadian Light Source visited China for a joint symposium on the clean use of coal.

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