U.S. Program on Materials Technology for Ultra-Supercritical Coal Power Plants

The efficiency of conventional fossil power plants is a strong function of the steam temperature and pressure. Research to increase both has been pursued worldwide, since the energy crisis in the 1970s. The need to reduce CO2 emissions has recently provided an additional incentive to increase efficiency. More recently, interest has been evinced in advanced combustion technologies utilizing oxygen instead of air for combustion. The main enabling...