Huge but Changing Power Plant Air Pollution Market in China Has $100 Billion Potential

China will spend $100 billion for air pollution control for power plants over the next decade.  The question is where will that money be spent and for what equipment?  The answer will be shaped by technology. This is an unprecedented opportunity for the development of better solutions with the assurance that there will be a high ROI for the winners.

Where:  More stringent regulations have been set for power plants operating near cities. For example, some power plants will have to meet particulate limits of 5-10 mg/Nm3 vs. 30 mg nationwide. The location will also depend on the success of the effort to convert coal-to-gas and liquids.  Under this program 800 million tons of coal per year will be converted to gas and piped from the western and northern coal fields to the large eastern cities. The cleaner burning gas will then be used for home heating and power.  The investment in air pollution control for the conversion projects is going to be as big as the investment to clean up the coal burning power plants.

What:  The equipment history for the Chinese power plant air pollution control industry starts with electrostatic precipitators.  China has been the leading manufacturer of dry electrostatic precipitators for many years.  Eighty-five percent of all the large coal-fired power plants in China are equipped with these devices.  More than 800,000 MW of power plant precipitators are in operation in China.  

Ten years ago China implemented regulations requiring SO₂ removal from coal-fired power plants. There has also been a retrofit program.  So now the majority of power plants have scrubbers.  In the last five years there has been a program to reduce NO_x through use of selective catalytic reduction (SCR).  More than 25 percent of the power plants have SCR systems.

The latest regulations are shown below.  However, more stringent regulations apply to some of the larger cities.  Also there are already plans to reduce limits even lower.

It is safe to say that very low particulate, NO_x, and SO₂ limits will be applied over the coming decade. Many power plants will be retrofitted.  There are choices to be made as to how to reduce each pollutant.

Particulate

1.     Improve the operation of the existing precipitator. There has been recent success with new components to meet the 30 mg/Nm3.

2.     Switch to a fabric filter and reduce to less than 10 mg/Nm3.

3.     Add a fabric section in the last stage of the precipitator to achieve 12 mg/Nm3.

4.     Add a wet electrostatic precipitator and achieve emissions below 10 mg/Nm3.

5.     Install a catalytic filter with DSI for emissions below 12 mg/Nm3.

On July 21, 2014, China Environmental Monitoring Station reported emissions for the No. 7 and No. 8 units of the Zhejiang Jiaxing power plant.  The unit is equipped with an SCR, dry precipitator, scrubber and then a wet precipitator.

The wet electrostatic option is a new one. It is possible to install it at the top of the scrubber, so this would be attractive for retrofits.  On the other hand, a number of dry precipitators have been converted to fabric filters.  This is also an attractive retrofit option.

NO_x

There are several options for NO_x reduction:

1.     Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) with plate or honeycomb catalysts located upstream of the air heater or downstream of the scrubber and a gas-to-gas heat exchanger

2.     SNCR

3.     Hybrid SNCR/SCR

4.     Catalytic filter

5.     Chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide

6.     Ozone in combination with a scrubber

For new plants, SCR will likely be the choice.  However, any of the other technologies could be attractive for retrofits.   The big attraction of the catalytic filter is the clean hot 850^oF gas which can then be directed to an efficient heat exchanger. This can result in a low net carbon footprint for the plant.

SO₂

Wet scrubbers using limestone as the reagent and gypsum as the end product are utilized in more than 80 percent of the existing Chinese power plants. But there are lots of options:

1.     Wet limestone gypsum

2.     Dry vessel type scrubber (spray drier or fluid bed)

3.     Dry sorbent injection

4.     Two stage system making hydrochloric acid in the first stage and gypsum in the second stage using lime rather than limestone

5.     Ammonia and other systems to produce fertilizers or sulfur products

China is on the cutting edge to extract the rare earths and metals from flyash.  Option #4 would be a cost effective approach for the extraction.  At this point it exists only as a recommendation from the McIlvaine Company. There is a significant potential for the catalytic filter/efficient heat exchanger to greatly reduce the net carbon foot print and reduce rather than add costs.  So there is a very big incentive for international and Chinese companies to invest in research and development and become the leaders in this very large market.

For more information, click on:

N018 Electrostatic Precipitator World Market

N021 World Fabric Filter and Element Market

N035 NOx Control World Market 

N027 FGD Market and Strategies

Total FGD Market Much Bigger Than $3.4 Billion Forecast

Next year coal-fired power plants will spend $3.4 billion for traditional scrubbing systems to remove SO₂. This is a big decrease from the 2010 - 2011 peak concludes the McIlvaine Company in FGD Market and Strategies.  (www.mcilvainecompany.com)

The traditional market involves using limestone as a reagent in wet scrubbers.  Europe and The U.S. will be spending very little in this category because few new coal-fired power plants are being built.  Many of the older ones already have scrubbers.  However, there is another factor which is a regulatory environment which encourages high operating cost /low capital cost.

A number of older power plants in the U.S. are required to reduce HCl and must purchase equipment to do so in the next year or two. The traditional limestone scrubber has a high capital cost and low operating cost.  Due to greenhouse gas initiatives and lower natural gas prices the operators of these power plants are considering power plant retirement in the next decade. They are, therefore, looking to lower capital cost options.

Dry lime injection (DSI) is one of the low capital cost options.  Annual reagent costs (lime or sodium) will be quite high but if the power plant is retired in less than ten years, the life cycle cost of this option will be less.

A big market which is not reflected in the scrubber forecast is the upgrading and replacement of portions of existing FGD systems.  Many FGD systems are more than 25 years old.  Since there are regulatory barriers to building new power plants, the only option is to upgrade the old ones. The upgrade market has risen substantially over the decades. The potential in both Europe and the U.S. is significant.  China is also forcing upgrades of nearly 100,000 MW of existing FGD systems which are not meeting current regulations.

The potential for FGD sales in India and some other parts of Asia is substantial.  At this point regulations do not require FGD but it is likely that there will be tougher regulations in the foreseeable future.

For more information on FGD Market and Strategies, click on: http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php/markets/2-uncategorised/107-n027.

Renewable Energy Briefs

Ex-Im Bank Chairman Signs $1 Billion MOU to Support U.S. Clean Energy Exports to India

In November Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) Chairman Fred P. Hochberg signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Chairman K.S. Popli of the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) that will explore options for utilizing up to $1 billion to finance the sale of U.S. clean energy exports to India.

The availability of Ex-Im Bank financing could translate into support for skilled jobs in the U.S. renewable energy sector while contributing to the Indian government's recently-announced goal of providing 24-hour electricity to India's 1.3 billion citizens by 2019, much of it set to come from renewable sources. In fact, Ex-Im Bank has authorized $353.4 million for U.S. renewable energy exports to India since 2009, and Ex-Im Bank was one of the top financiers of projects under the National Solar Mission Phase 1.

India ranks as the second-largest destination for U.S. exports supported by Ex-Im Bank financing, and claims more than $7.2 billion of the Bank's credit exposure through FY 2014. Over the last five years, Ex-Im Bank has authorized an average of $1.4 billion per year to finance U.S. exports to India.

Iberdrola Opens its First Offshore Wind Farm

Iberdrola USA, the second-largest wind producer in the United Sates, announced that its sister company ScottishPower Renewables, in conjunction with Dong Energy of Denmark, has opened Iberdrola’s first offshore wind farm – West of Duddon Sands, a 389 MW facility located in the Irish Sea, approximately 12.5 miles off the seaport of Barrow-in-Furness in North West England.

More than 1,000 workers spent the last two years erecting the 108 Siemens turbines, connected through a 125-mile web of undersea cable in a 26-square-mile patch of the Irish Sea. Each turbine has a rating of 3.6 MW, and the wind farm has enough total capacity to meet the annual electricity demands of approximately 280,000 homes.

Two big innovations in offshore wind project construction helped reduce the costs of this project and get it online ahead of schedule:

• A new $80 million, custom-designed offshore wind terminal built at Belfast Harbor. The terminal employs up to 300 workers and can operate around the clock for continual delivery of turbine and foundation components to the farm.

• Two of the world’s largest and most advanced installation vessels: Pacific Orca and Sea Installer. Using the two vessels in tandem enabled construction crews to install all the foundations and turbine components during one of the most stormy winters in recent history.

Energy generated by the project connects to an offshore substation built by Iberdrola’s engineering subsidiary, Iberdrola Engineering and Construction, and designed to withstand the area’s extreme weather conditions. The substation boosts the voltage then routes it through two export cables to the onshore substation at Heysham where it enters the U.K. national grid.

SunEdison Partners with AboitizPower to Develop up to 300 MW of Utility Scale Solar Energy in The Philippines

SunEdison, Inc., a leading solar technology manufacturer and provider of solar energy services, announced that it entered into a joint framework agreement with Aboitiz Renewables, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corporation (AboitizPower). The agreement formalizes their intention to jointly explore, develop, construct and operate up to 300 megawatts of utility-scale solar photovoltaic power generation projects in the Philippines over the next three years.

The partnership with Aboitiz Renewables aims to develop the first in a series of utility-scale solar power projects in the Philippines starting in 2015. This follows similar arrangements by SunEdison in India and China through continued leverage of its ability to deploy cost effective solar energy solutions to meet the growing power needs of developing and emerging power markets.

Yingli Green Energy Supplies 72 MW of Solar Panels to Solarcentury in the United Kingdom

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited the largest vertically integrated solar panel manufacturer in the world announced that the company will supply 72 megawatts of multi- and monocrystalline solar panels to Solarcentury Holdings Ltd., a leading solar company in the United Kingdom.

In terms of the agreement between Yingli and Solarcentury, the company will complete the delivery of approximately 168,000 solar panels by the end of this year. The panels will be installed in projects across the UK. These projects will produce approximately 65,000 MWh of clean solar electricity per year, enough to supply around 21,800 typical UK homes.

Officials Commemorate Completion of New Landfill Gas-to-Energy Project

Ameresco, Inc., a leading energy efficiency and renewable energy company, joined with local California officials and energy industry leaders to commemorate the completion of its 4.3 megawatt (MWe) landfill gas-to-energy (LFGTE) project at the Foothill Landfill in Linden, CA.

“The facility on the Foothill Landfill is expected to generate 4.3 MWe of clean energy which will provide clean power for more than 2,600 local homes annually.  Between the clean power and our organic approach to vegetation management utilizing sheep to naturally trim the growing vegetation at the site, we are making great strides towards achieving our environmental goals and sustainability objectives,” said Desi Reno, Integrated Waste Manager for San Joaquin County Department of Public Works. 

For more information on Renewable Energy Projects and Update please visit: http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/Renewable_Energy_Projects_Brochure/renewable_energy_projects_brochure.htm

Headlines for Utility E-Alert – November 21, 2014       

UTILITY E-ALERT

#1201 – November 21, 2014

Table of Contents

COAL – US

• Final reconsideration of the Startup and Shutdown Provisions under MATS

COAL – WORLD

• SEPCO III to build 600 MW Power Plant in Mongolia
• Ayala to build Power Plants on Two Philippine Islands
• India planning More than 4000 MW of New Power Capacity in Bihar
• Mining Company ENRC Mozambique plans Power Plant in Mozambique
• 2400 MW Power Plant to be built in Egypt
• NTPC could become Joint Venture Partner in 2400 MW Odisha (India) Project
• 3600 MW Cuddalore Power Plant in Tamil Nadu, India, reportedly Canceled
• Andhra Pradesh (India) planning 3960 MW Power Project at Vempadu
• Wallerawang Power Plant closed in New South Wales (NSW), Australia

GAS/OIL – US

• 969 MW Combined Cycle Project in Oregon, Ohio, to use Siemens Technology
• Bechtel-Siemens to build 778 MW Stonewall Energy Power Plant

GAS/OIL – WORLD

• India plans to Bail Out Gas-fired Power Plants
• ABB receives Automation Contract for Batna, Algeria Gas Turbine Power Plant

NUCLEAR

• Construction at Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant Delayed
• Alternate Energy Holdings Executives Indicted
• Indonesia ponders Nuclear Power
• Market for Nuclear Valves to Exceed $2.4 Billion in 2017
• EDF looking at Saudi Arabia for possible Stake in Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Project in UK
• DTE Fermi One Step Closer to License
• Bolivia and France to cooperate on Nuclear Technology

BUSINESS

• Texas Electricity Prices could rise by 20 Percent if Carbon Emissions Slashed
• Solvay Chemicals to grind Sodium Products at Owensboro Facility
• The Global Warming Debate can be resolved at least Temporarily with a Plan to Please Everyone

HOT TOPIC HOUR

• Upcoming Hot Topic Hours

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McIlvaine Hot Topic Hour Registration

On Thursday at 10:00 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.

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Bob McIlvaine
President
847-784-0012 ext 112
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
www.mcilvainecompany.com