Center for Advanced Separation Technology

Abstract

The U.S. is the largest producer of mining products in the world. In 2011, U.S. mining operations contributed a total of $\$$232 billion to the nation’s GDP plus $\$$138 billion in labor income. Of this the coal mining industry contributed a total of $\$$97.5 billion to GDP plus $\$$53 billion in labor income. Despite these contributions, the industry has not been well supported with research and development funds as compared to mining industries in other countries. To overcome this problem, the Center for Advanced Separation Technologies (CAST) was established to develop technologies that can be used by the U.S. mining industry to create new products, reduce production costs, and meet environmental regulations. Originally set up by Virginia Tech and West Virginia University, CAST is now a five-university consortium – Virginia Tech, West Virginia University, University of Kentucky, University of Utah and Montana Tech, - that is supported through U.S. DOE Cooperative Agreement No. DE-FE0000699, Center for Advanced Separation Technology. Much of the research to be conducted with Cooperative Agreement funds will be longer term, high-risk, basic research and will be carried out in two broad areas: Advanced Pre-Combustion Clean Coal Technologies and Gas-Gas Separations. Distribution of funds is handled via competitive solicitation of research proposals through Site Coordinators at the five member universities. These were reviewed and the selected proposals were forwarded these to the DOE/NETL Project Officer for final review and approval.