Power Air Quality Insights No

Power Air Quality Insights
No. 152 April 10, 2014

WELCOME

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The market for electrostatic precipitators will continue to be large. The question is whether it will grow significantly in the next decade. Multiple forecasts based on different scenarios are displayed in Electrostatic Precipitator World Market published by the McIlvaine Company. (www.mcilvainecompany.com

The portion of the market which is predictable involves the replacement and upgrades at coal-fired generating facilities around the world. More than half of the industry air from heavy industry including coal-fired generators, cement plants, iron and steel manufacturing, pulp and paper, mining and refining flows through electrostatic precipitators. Coal-fired generators exhaust more air than all the rest of the industries combined. Over 90 percent of the air discharged from coal-fired boilers flow through precipitators.

The big variable is whether coal-fired facilities around the world will continue to purify exhaust gas with precipitators or will be forced to use the potentially more efficient fabric filters. The combined purchases of new precipitators for coal-fired boilers will exceed $3 billion per year in India and China over the next several years. There is little likelihood that India would consider alternatives. However, China could decide to utilize fabric filters. The reason is tough new emission standards which have been promulgated recently. The incentive to move even beyond the standards has been increased with the recent smog episodes in Beijing and some other regions.

China has surprised the world by moving faster on NO_x and SO₂ control than had been thought possible. A major effort to upgrade particulate control equipment is certainly possible. On the other hand, the Chinese air pollution control companies are the largest manufacturers of electrostatic precipitators. A shift to fabric filters would mean an industry transformation and increased reliance on offshore technology.

One option is hybrid technology. Longking has licensed the U.S. government funded combination precipitator and fabric filter. Several commercial installations are operating. Another option is to improve the performance of precipitators. Cooling the gas to below 200°F prior to entering the precipitator will greatly improve performance. However, corrosion becomes a risk. The injection of sorbents ahead of the precipitator can minimize this risk. There are also continuing improvements in power supplies to charge the particles and collection plates to capture the particles.

Another variable is the fuel burned at Chinese plants. Much of the coal is of a poor quality and makes capture more difficult. The conclusion is that the size of the market over the next decade will be dependent on both regulatory and technical factors which are as yet not precisely predictable.

Construction Completed on Germany’s First Privately Financed Offshore Wind Farm

WindMW GmbH, a joint-venture of Blackstone Energy Partners, Blackstone’s (NYSE:BX) energy-focused private equity business, and Windland Energieerzeugungs GmbH, announced the completion of Meerwind Süd │Ost, a 288 Megawatt (MW) offshore wind farm located in the German North Sea.

Within the last day, WindMW installed its 80th and final offshore turbine and completed the installation of Meerwind’s 3,500-ton offshore converter substation. Construction of Meerwind began in 2012 and was completed on schedule within 18 months.

The 288 MW project will produce enough clean power to service approximately 360,000 households and will help Germany eliminate approximately one million tons of carbon emissions per year. Meerwind was the first German offshore wind project to be fully financed by private investors, was the largest German offshore wind farm to achieve a full financial closing, and was the first to close under Germany’s KfW financing program, which is focused on helping Germany meet its renewable energy targets by providing debt financing to Greenfield energy projects.

A total of €1.2 billion was invested in the construction of the wind farm Meerwind Süd│Ost, which is situated 23 kilometers north of Helgoland, Germany.

Strong Response to Duke Energy’s Request for New Solar Energy Projects in North Carolina

Duke Energy announced it had substantial participation in response to its request for proposals (RFP) for 300 MW of new solar energy capacity in its Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress territories.

"The strong response to our RFP reflects on the healthy solar market in North Carolina," said Rob Caldwell, Vice President, Renewable Generation Development. "This RFP could allow Duke Energy to practically double its overall solar capacity in the state."

The RFP, which was designed to assist Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress in meeting their respective North Carolina Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standards requirements, also allows Duke Energy to further its commitment to renewable energy and continue to diversify its resource mix in the Carolinas.

The RFP gave bidders the flexibility to offer power and associated renewable energy certificates, and/or to provide a turnkey proposal through which Duke Energy would acquire the new facility. Duke Energy received both types of bids.

Caldwell said the company is thoroughly evaluating each proposal and hopes to be able to select the winning projects and complete negotiations by October 1, 2014. He added all selected projects should be online by December 31, 2015.

The company's RFP targeted solar facilities greater than 5 MW. It was limited to projects that were in the company's current transmission and distribution interconnection queue as of February 13, 2014, when the RFP was issued. Affiliates of Duke Energy were not allowed to participate in the RFP.

PSEG Long Island announced the results for Long Island's second Clean Solar Initiative. The feed-in-tariff program builds upon Long Island Power Authority's first feed-in tariff for solar energy and is designed to bring an additional 100 megawatts (MW) of solar energy to Long Island.

After a four-month application period that ended on January 31, 2014, PSEG Long Island received 178 proposals from 55 separate entities, which reflected a variety of proposed bids.

Following a comprehensive analysis, the final bid price of $0.1688 per kilowatt hour (kWh) was selected to be paid to developers for solar photovoltaic systems of various sizes and types that are anticipated to be constructed across Long Island. In total, this 100 MW of solar energy is expected to be generated from 76 separate projects, which is enough to power about 13,000 homes. These solar photovoltaic systems will provide clean, renewable energy for at least the next 20 years, and will create hundreds of construction jobs.

Anaergia Delivers Showcase Facility for Generating Renewable Energy from Organic Waste in London, England

Anaergia Inc. announced that UTS Biogas Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Anaergia based in the United Kingdom, has successfully constructed and commissioned a 1.5 MWe biogas facility at Dagenham, London, for its client TEG Environmental Ltd.

The Dagenham facility, located on a newly developed site within the London Sustainable Industries Park, is a combination of in-vessel composting and anaerobic digestion technology. The facility can process up to 50,000 tons of organic waste each year.

UTS and TEG have already successfully commissioned their first co-located facility in Perthshire, Scotland.

The anaerobic digestion plant at Dagenham generates approximately 1.5 MW of electricity, sufficient to power around 2,000 homes, together with heat for use within the plant and eventual export. It has been specifically designed for food waste with an upfront separation of organics from non-digestable materials such as paper, glass and plastics. A two stage anaerobic digestion process is followed by down-stream pasteurization of the digestate, so that the production of fertilizer meets the stringent PAS110 criteria.

A123 Energy Solutions announced the commissioning of a 2.8 MWh Grid Storage Solution (GSS™) for IHI Corporation, one of the largest industrial equipment manufacturers in Japan. The 1 MW, 2.8 MWh containerized Long Duration (LD) GSS is connected to the IHI factory located in Soma, Japan and is helping the facility manage its peak energy consumption, reducing its overall demand spikes to reduce stress on the local electric grid infrastructure.

The GSS was installed and commissioned in less than six weeks, from the delivery of the energy storage onsite to completion of testing. “This marks A123 Energy’s first deployment in Japan, and is also one of the largest behind-the-meter installations we’ve done to date,” said Bud Collins, President of A123 Energy. “Here we’ve been able to show that the GSS product line can be used for large commercial and industrial operations seeking to reduce demand charges, and not just utility-side applications like frequency regulation.”

The LD GSS is designed for high energy, longer runtime operation than the HR GSS and can store large amounts of energy produced from variable energy resources like wind or solar for later consumption, or perform simple time shifting of peak demand to off-peak hours. The LD GSS has been installed and commissioned in multiple locations worldwide, and combined with A123 Energy Solutions’ HR GSS, has reached over 110 MW deployed.

This webinar will address the technology and needs for monitoring NO_x, CO and VOCs from gas turbines. Various principles and physical locations (extractive versus in-situ) will be compared based on their accuracy, reliability and cost. This will compare various technologies for NH₃ slip measurement. The need to measure low levels of NO_x will also be explored. The use of the continuous emissions monitoring system to provide process control will also be addressed.

This webinar will consist of a discussion rather than formal presentations. Expert panelists will address a series of questions. All participants will be encouraged to comment. Each participant is able to view the comprehensive background information at “Gas Turbine Emission Control - Continuous Analyses.”

Participants for the April 17 meeting are being asked to review the following information plus additional information supplied and posted on the website prior to the meeting.

On Thursday at 10 a.m. Central time, McIlvaine hosts a 90 minute web meeting on important energy and pollution control subjects. Power webinars are free for subscribers to either Power Plant Air Quality Decisions or Utility Tracking System. The cost is $300.00 for non-subscribers.

See below for information on upcoming Hot Topic Hours. We welcome your input relative to suggested additions.

DATE	SUBJECT
April 17, 2014	Measurement Of Gas Turbine Emissions Including NH₃	Six different options
May 1, 2014	850^oF Particulate Removal With Ceramic Filter Media	Could change the whole back end
May 8, 2014	Sorbent Traps vs. Mercury CEMS	Sorbent traps are competitive
May 15, 2014	Gas Intake Filters: HEPA or Medium Efficiency	More information
May 29, 2014	Stellite Delamination in Power Plant Steam Valves	More information
June 5, 2014	Dry vs. Wet Cooling	Surprising number of ACC’S. Why?
June 12, 2014	HRSG Issues (Fast Start, Tube Failures)	Lots of challenges to cycle 200 X/yr
June 26, 2014	CCR	$ billions Needed
July/August 2014	Boiler Feedwater Treatment Condensate Polishing for Peaking Turbines 316 B Water Issues Gas Turbine Permitting Issues *Give us your opinion about topics we should consider*