February 2015 - Power Air Quality Insights 196

AFS and Filtration News Join Mcilvaine in Creating a New Route to Market for You

The Filtration & Separation in Power Generation Conference taking place April 27 – 29, 2015 in Charlotte, N.C. will be focused on solutions. It will be part of a whole new integrated knowledge effort. If you are involved in hot gas cleanup, gas turbine air inlet filtration, or water treatment, you should consider participating.

This new approach is based on the belief that decision makers need the precise options which are available at each step in the decision making process. The best way to evaluate those options is to participate in discussions and debates with the world experts representing each option.

Tuesday, April 28 at 3:20 p.m. there will be a discussion of gas turbine inlet air treatment with a focus on HEPA vs. medium efficiency filters and filter media.

Wednesday, April 29 at 10:20 a.m. there will be a discussion of hot gas filter options including synthetic, glass, ceramic and metal media.

Tuesday/Wednesday there will be presentations on power plant water options including cross-flow membranes, demineralization and degasification.

This conference will be a unique high level exchange because it will be based on options already analyzed in three free websites:

All attendees will be advised to view these websites in advance. Suppliers will be encouraged to submit data. Power plants will be asked to submit questions and concerns. These will be addressed before during and after the conference.

A significant number of experts will not only be participating but will be available for discussions throughout the conference. There will be dedicated luncheon tables, so participants can talk to specific experts.

Filtration News is publishing an overview prior to the conference and will publish a series of summaries in the months following the conference. The websites will be continually updated.

These websites are part of larger programs which are free of charge to any power plant in the world.

If you would like to be a discussion participant or have information for the websites, contact: Bob McIlvaine 847-784-0012 ext. 112 or rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com.

The technology, the locations and the applications for thermal treatment of stack gases are changing at a faster rate today than they were a decade ago. The present world market for regenerative thermal oxidizers, catalytic oxidizers and conventional thermal treatment is $2 billion. This does not include flares which add an additional $0.4 billion. It does not include NO_x reduction which is addressed in a separate McIlvaine report.

The overall growth rate for the industry will be less than 5 percent, but the market in some industries and some locations will grow at double-digit rates. Some new technology also promises to capture significant portions of the market. These are the conclusions reached by the McIlvaine Company in Thermal Catalytic World Air Pollution Markets. (www.mcilvainecompany.com)

Unconventional oil and gas extraction is a changing application. There are new sources of emissions and new restrictions on existing sources. Stranded sources have traditionally emitted methane without treatment. Flaring of those gases is now required in many countries. The U.S. has gone a step further and is requiring capture and reuse of those gases.

Coal bed methane, biomass combustion, ethanol manufacture and landfill gas are all growing application segments for thermal treatment. Sewage sludge combustion is an application now being served with regenerative thermal oxidizers.

New technologies include catalytic filtration. W.L. Gore introduced REMEDIA^® a number of years ago. Now FLSmidth and Haldor Topsoe have introduced a synthetic media filter with three layers each including a catalyst. Filtration Group has a catalytic filter element which has been removing VOCs in a number of installations.

The market has shifted from the developed countries to the developing. Printing, textile, food and other manufacturers with VOC emissions have long been regulated in Europe and the U.S. Now stringent VOC control regulations are being implemented in Asia and South America.

Mainstream Renewable Power Completes Financial Close for Approximately $760 Million Investment in Three Large-scale Wind Farms in South Africa

Mainstream Renewable Power announced the successful completion of financial close for three wind farms in South Africa with a combined capacity of 360 megawatts. The farms, which are all located in South Africa’s Northern Cape Province, represent an investment of approximately 760 million U.S. dollars and are expected to commence construction this month.

In 2011 a Mainstream consortium was also awarded 238 megawatts of wind and solar projects in the first South African Government’s Procurement program and all three projects are now in commercial operation.

NRG Renew to Deliver America’s Largest Solar Solution for a Healthcare Provider

NRG Renew LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of NRG Energy, Inc., the country’s largest independent power producer, has entered into an agreement with Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit healthcare providers, to help Kaiser Permanente achieve its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions three years ahead of its promised date. Utilizing as much as 70 megawatts (MW) of on-site solar from NRG Renew, Kaiser Permanente will achieve the top ranking of on-site installed solar capacity among U.S. healthcare companies.

NRG Renew will implement a single-brand, multi-site distributed solar program at as many as 170 sites, which will include medical offices, hospitals, clinics, data centers and other Kaiser Permanente facilities.

Solar photovoltaic arrays will be constructed and integrated primarily on carports and parking structures. The planned aggregate coverage area will make the NRG Renew–Kaiser Permanente portfolio one of the world’s largest solar projects built primarily for vehicle parking. Utilizing parking structures to harness solar energy is important because in a typical city, pavements account for 35 percent to 50 percent of surface area, of which about 40 percent are exposed parking lots, according to research by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Duke Energy has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for up to 50 megawatts (MW) of new solar energy capacity in North Carolina.

Solar projects, 2 MW or larger, would be tied to the company's Green Source Rider. That program, approved in late 2013 by the North Carolina Utilities Commission, allows large customers of Duke Energy Carolinas to supply new electricity load with renewable energy.

Duke Energy is looking for projects 2 MW or larger in the Duke Energy Carolinas territory. It gives developers the opportunity to sell power for up to 15 years, or to negotiate with Duke Energy for the utility to acquire ownership of the new facilities. Final selection will be based on pricing, customer preference and other considerations.

Toshiba Corporation announced that the Olkaria Geothermal Power Plant, Kenya’s largest geothermal power complex, has started commercial operation. The official opening ceremony was held at the site, in the presence of President Uhuru Kenyatta and government officials.

Kenya Electricity Generating Company Ltd. awarded a full turnkey contract for Olkaria I and IV to a consortium of Korea’s Hyundai Engineering Co., Ltd. and Japan’s Toyota Tsusho Corporation in 2011. Toshiba, selected by Hyundai Engineering to provide key equipment, supplied four 70-megawatt turbines and generators for the plant in 2013. Olkaria IV started commercial operation in September 2014, followed by Olkaria I in January 2015.

Saft Lithium-Ion Battery Energy Storage System Harnesses Solar to Deliver Reliable Power to Arctic Circle Community

Saft was selected by Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC) to develop and install an extreme temperature Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) for use as part of a hybrid micro-grid that will deliver cleaner, more reliable and less expensive power to a community located 50 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Canada.

The system will be installed at the Colville Lake Power Station in June 2015 and will provide Colville Lake residents with consistent, renewable solar power and reduced diesel fuel consumption. Colville Lake is a remote, small community of about 150 inhabitants with temperatures that can drop to -50°C in winter and reach 35°C in summer. Currently, the community experiences a high incidence of power outages. The community can only be reached by road during a six-week period in February through March, when northern ice-roads are in use. Otherwise, it is accessed by flights. As such, the system was completed within a strict timeframe and delivered to Edmonton, where it is awaiting the final trek across the ice-roads when they are reopened.

Saft’s innovative “Cold Temperature Package” design allows for a complete BESS system in an ISO 20-foot container that withstands extreme arctic environments down to -50°C. As part of the contract, Saft will develop and install one Intensium® Max 20M Medium Power (IM 20M) Li-ion battery container with 232 kWh of energy and a 200kW Power Conditioning System from ABB. The turnkey BESS will serve as the heart of the hybrid micro-grid that is part of a larger Solar and Diesel upgrade to the existing power plant.

§ B&W says Inorganic Sulfide is the Most Cost Effective Re-emission Route

§ Clear Chem plus Dürr Ceramic Filter and Heat Exchanger are the One Stop Shopping Option

§ Bangladesh Power Development Board to set up a 1,200 MW Coal-fired Power Plant in Maheshkhali

§ NERC licenses Firm to build Four Units of 300 MW Coal-to-Power Plants in Kogi State

§ Moundsville Power's 549 MW Combined-Cycle Gas-fired Power Plant approved by West Virginia Public Service Commission

§ Panda Power Joint Venture with Sunbury Generation LP for Combined Cycle Power Plant in PA

§ Black & Veatch to Serve as Owner's Engineer for Exelon Corporation Generation Expansion

§ Halliburton and Cluff Natural Resources will collaborate on Development of Underground Coal Gasification Projects in the UK

§ Florida Power & Light spars with National Park over Water needs for Nuclear Plant

§ Consumers Energy states it Will have Needed Capacity in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula

§ HCl Scrubbing and Rare Earth Recovery from Coal-fired Power Plants and Gasifiers are the Perfect Marriage

§ “Mercury Measurement and Capture” will be the Hot Topic Hour on February 26^th and March 5^th, 2015

“Mercury Measurement and Capture” Will Be the “Hot Topic Hour” on February 26^th and March 5^th, 2015

We will be discussing conveying, corrosion, measurement and sorbents for removing mercury in the next two weeks. Should you use fuel chemicals, carbon sobents or noncarbon sorbents? Should you use sorbent traps for compliance and mercury CEMS for process control? Lots is being learned as we near the MATS implementation date. Many of the speakers have been at EUEC this week. A number of new developments have been brought to our attention. We hope to incorporate them into the discussions.. Here is the speaker schedule:

Sheila Glesmann, Senior Vice President, Environmental and External Affairs, ADA-CS

Steve Feeney, Mgr./Nat'l. Sales/Aftermarkets, Babcock & Wilcox Power Generating Group

Jeremy Whorton, P.E., CEMS Product Manager- Americas, Air Quality Instruments, Thermo Fisher Scientific

· B&W says Inorganic Sulfide is the Most Cost Effective Re-emission Route

· Clear Chem plus Dürr Ceramic Filter and Heat Exchanger are the One Stop Shopping Option

Four hundred papers were presented in two and a half days at EUEC in San Diego this week. There was quite a bit of new and valuable information available from the presentations and the exhibition stands. As in the past, the coverage of monitoring was extensive. However, this year the mercury coverage equaled that of monitoring. There were also good sessions on FGD, NO_x Control and Particulate.

There is still debate on the role of sorbent traps in mercury measurement. Should they be used for compliance or should the mercury CEMS be used for both process control and regulatory compliance reporting?

The era of particulate mass monitoring is about to begin. PCME is now a sister company of Altech and part of Environnment. They have a wet stack PM mass monitor which is in use by a number of U.S. power plants.

A number of approaches to HCl monitoring were discussed. ABB cites advantages of Cavity Enhand Absorption Spectroscopy (CEAS) over TDL and FTIR. Both greater accuracy and lower maintenance are claimed. Cemtek presented data on successful use of TDL. CAI covered applications of FTIR in incineration, cement and power. MKS also weighed in on advantages of FTIR. Altech provided reasons for its choice of Tiger Optics Continuous Wave Cavity Ring-Down Specroscopy.

Cisco has more than 500 CEMS systems operating on gas turbine power plants and has won several recent awards for their designs.

Most of the FGD focus was on dry technologies. However, Andritz explained the advantages of FGD PLUS for wet scrubbing with limestone. IAC displayed a dry scrubber with a cyclone for capture and recirculation of the larger material prior to final filtration in a baghouse. A number of papers dealt with dry sorbent injection.

Prevention of mercury re-emissions was a popular topic. Andritz presented data on the use of activated carbon and the separation of the carbon/mercury from the gypsum by use of a hydrocyclone.

Dȕrr has teamed with Clear Chem to take advantage of the design whereby powdered limestone (less than 1 micron) is added in the furnace and eventually captured in a hot gas filter. This is a variation on the process described by McIlvaine last week. The powdered limestone could be in addition to DSI if higher efficiency is needed.

Hitachi explained that hot SCR is cost effective and allows the utilization of one large gas turbine for peaking purposes. The alternative multiple aeroderivatives is a much more expensive route.

Cayuga Power is using a series of 5 Gore modules to bring mercury emissions down below 0.6 lbs/MMBtu. The modules are situated above the mist eliminator section of the scrubber. Earlier tests with activated carbon were not too promising. So the plant decided on this technology even though there was not much commercial experience. After three months of operation, the unit is working well. Periodic spraying of the modules is needed to ensure that they stay clean, but this was anticipated.

The use of the Gore module after the scrubber makes economic sense for the following reason. If you have two technologies in series and each removes 70 percent, you achieve 94 percent removal. In this case, the high capital cost technology is the first in series. Consumables cost is not an issue.

Activated carbon could be used to obtain the first 70 percent removal and then the scrubber would capture 70 percent of 30 percent or an additional 24 percent reduction. The problem with this approach is the high cost of carbon. So you want the technology with the high consumables cost to be second and not first.

Activated carbon, silicates and kaolin were all touted as the best solution for concrete-friendly sorbents with high efficiency. Atlas Carbon is a new entry. The production facility will come online this year with an output of 16 million pounds followed by an expansion of another 32 million lbs. /yr. capability in 2016-2017. The pneumatic flash calciner technology should make the company the low cost producer, says the founder.

B&W says redesign of the rigid electrode to eliminate dead spots will improve efficiency and reduce back corona. SEI says that in most cases precipitators can be upgraded to meet the tough 5 mg/Nm³ limit. This is 40 percent less expensive than gutting the internals and replacing with bags. In the case of South African coals with very high resistivity, this is not the case. But the coals found in the U.S. are medium resistivity coals.

The URS approach of adding sorbents in the air heater and then reducing the air heater temperature has the double advantage of recovering heat and causing the precipitator to operate at higher efficiency.

McIlvaine interviewed several exhibitors relative to the need for tapes at the seams. National Filter Media has a tape and believes there are situations with fine dust and low emission requirements where it is needed. AFT says that their analysis of the cement industry shows that the tapes are not necessary. However, for lead, carbon black and certain other applications there would be a need to protect against emissions through the sewing holes.

The patented approach to preventing re-emissions by B&W uses inorganic sulfides because it is relatively low cost, efficient, and safe to handle. It is widely available.

For new units (and some existing plants), the combination of ClearChemFSI’s furnace sorbent injection (FSI) and Dürr’s catalytic ceramic filtration (CCF) ensures sufficient acid gas removal, allowing:

· Increase the overall plant efficiency (as a rule of thumb every 40^oF lower flue gas temperature equals to 1% efficiency gain),

· Maximizes flexibility for profitably meeting retrofit and new plant APC requirements,

· Most existing unit retrofits can use just ClearChemFSI & Dürr CHX for efficiency gain and avoids NSR,

On Thursdays at 10:00 a.m. Central time, McIlvaine hosts a 90 minute web meeting on important energy and pollution control subjects. These Webinars are free of charge to owner/operators of the plants. They are also free to McIlvaine Subscribers of Power Plant Air Quality Decisions and Utility Tracking System. The cost for others is $300.00 per webinar.

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

DATE	SUBJECT	DESCRIPTION
February 26, 2015	Mercury Measurement and Capture	More Information
March 5, 2015	Mercury Measurement and Capture - Second Session
March 12, 2015	Power Plant Wastewater Treatment	More Information
March 19, 2015	Dry Scrubbing and DSI	More Information
March 26, 2015	NO_x(SCR, SNCR)