A study of ash deposition from a cleaned bituminous and conventional bituminous coal is presented. An electrically heated drop tube furnace is used to burn the coal and provide deposition conditions representative of proposed coal-fired gas turbines. Variations in the combustion temperature and deposit surface temperature demonstrate that surface cooling may significantly reduce ash deposition, or may provide little benefit, depending on the combustion conditions. Lower temperature combustion produced larger ash particles, with a greater fraction of ash adhering to the deposition test surface. Although the sticking coefficient was higher at the lower combustion temperature, the deposits were readily removed. A modest numerical simulation suggests that the smallest ash particles can experience significant boundary layer cooling and may account for the reduction in sticking observed at some conditions.

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The combustion of coal and coal-derived fuels in heat engines poses significant technical challenges in terms of establishing high combustion rates and efficiencies, controlling emissions, and minimizing the impact of fuel contaminants on engine components. An entrained reactor has been designed and constructed to study coal particle combustion, the tendency of coal ash to form deposits on heat engine components, and the effects of fuel additives on residual ash composition. The reactor is designed for high temperature/pressure conditions similar to those of a coal-fired gas turbine. Optical access ports and advanced instrumentation allow the in situ measurement of gas and particle temperatures, and vapor phase alkali concentrations. The reactor has been used to study the deposition potential of several coals as a function of process conditions, and to determine the effects of selected additives on the deposition rate.

Pastoral Counseling centers are burgeoning because a whole new community of persons is developing with new sacramental needs. The anachronistic methods of the institutional church have resulted in the pastoral counselor taking on the role of priest and performing the fourfold Eucharistic function (take, bless, break, give) in therapy. Pastoral counseling is now a sacramental act, and may in fact develop into a sacrament. Pastoral counselors have a unique combination of psychological and theological training, though in their zeal for professional acceptance they often emphasize the former at the expense of the latter. The pastoral counseling community has a responsibility to use its unique training to influence the institutional church to effectively meet the new sacramental, liturgical, and spiritual needs of its people. To be able to inform the growth of the historical community of faith and to adequately function sacramentally in the therapeutic setting, pastoral counselors must first examine their own spirituality.