Abstract
A collaborative program by the U.S. Department of Energy and Ohio Coal Development Office aims to identify new materials for ultrasupercritical (USC) coal power plants operating at significantly higher efficiencies. These USC plants require advanced ferritic alloys, austenitic steels, and nickel-based alloys with superior steamside oxidation resistance at high temperatures (up to 800°C). Initial tests on over 20 candidate materials exposed to flowing steam at 650°C for 4,000 hours show promise for nickel-based and austenitic alloys, while highlighting the dependence of oxidation resistance on chromium content for ferritic alloys. Notably, even within 9% Cr ferritic steels, varying compositions resulted in significantly different oxidation behaviors.
