European Fossil Power Market Taking a Surprising Turn toward Coal and Wood
The U.S. coal and logging industries are booming thanks to exports to Europe.
Alternatives to these two fuels are much more expensive in Europe. At the same
time, the carbon credit price has fallen to insignificance. The result is a
great incentive for European power plants to burn solid fuels. These trends are
being analyzed in the McIlvaine Fossil & Nuclear Power Generation: World
Analysis & Forecast. (www.mcilvainecompany.com)
The impacts on industrial boilers are being tracked in Air Emitters. The
impacts on the FGD, DeNOx, precipitator, and fabric filter markets
are also being analyzed in McIlvaine market reports.
Here are some of the surprising developments in Europe:
·
The number of new coal-fired power plants in planning or construction in Europe
is rising,
·
The electricity production of existing coal-fired power plants is up
substantially,
·
A large number of dedicated biomass power plants are underway,
·
Major investments are being made to convert coal-fired power plants to burn
combinations of biomass and coal,
·
Coal imports are soaring,
·
Gas-fired power plant construction is down.
How did the region, most dedicated to reducing CO2 emissions, do an
about face? A major contributing factor is the cost of electricity.
Solar and wind are expensive and do not generate as much power as had been
anticipated, so Europe has to rely on other fuels. Germany is shutting
down nuclear facilities and is planning on lignite (brown coal) to fill the gap.
France is renovating three large coal-fired boilers and plans to operate them
for another thirty years. The economics dictate fossil fuels because the
penalties for CO2 emissions have become negligible.
In 2007, the EU set a goal by 2020, of reducing Europe’s greenhouse-gas
emissions to 20 percent below their 1990 level. It also set a goal of moving
Europe to 20 percent renewable energy by 2020. To accomplish this, it set
up a plan for carbon trading. Emitters have to pay for their CO2
emissions. As they say about the best laid plans of mice and men, they often go
astray. A drastic drop in industrial activity has sharply reduced the need for
companies to buy emission rights, causing a gradual fall in the price of carbon
allowances. On April 16, the European
Parliament was on the verge of temporarily tightening the supply of allowances
to boost the price of carbon and shore-up the market. But opposition by
countries led by Poland defeated the measure. The result is the price of carbon
plummeting to a historic low of $3.60.
A new supercritical coal-fired power plant generates 30 percent less CO2
than an old subcritical power plant. With the relatively high price of coal, the
cost per kW hr of coal-fired generation is lower with the more efficient new
power plants. The result is a program to replace existing old power plants with
new ones. Germany, in particular, has followed this course.
European power producers realize that the carbon credit situation could change
with another decision regarding the carbon allowances, so they are looking for
renewable solid fuels which do not generate net carbon increases. One of the
results is an expanded focus on biomass.
Forty-nine percent of renewable energy generated in the EU came from wood and
wood waste in 2010. This percentage is now rising rather than falling.
European power generators are importing agricultural waste from Asia and wood
pellets from the U.S. They are developing biomass farms to provide a continuing
supply of biomass. The justification of burning biomass is that it is carbon
neutral. When a tree grows, it absorbs CO2. When it is logged
and burned, it emits the CO2 back to the atmosphere, so it is carbon
neutral. Here is the math showing we need to increase biomass growth by 5
percent to offset all of manmade emissions.
World Annual Flows in
Billion Tons of Carbon
(multiply by 44.5 for CO2) |
||
Medium |
Emissions |
Absorption |
Soil and biomass |
122 |
123 |
Ocean |
91 |
92 |
Man made |
6 |
|
Man made % |
3% |
|
Bio uptake % needed to balance
man made |
|
5% |
Soil and biomass presently absorb 123 billion tons per year of carbon. If the
absorption were increased to 129 billion tons per year, it would offset all of
manmade emissions. This makes lots of sense in the short-term. But let’s
look at the long-term. Soil and biomass presently hold 2,300 billion tons
of carbon. Under the biomass burning strategy, this would increase by 0.2
percent per year. Sometime in the next fifty years we would have 2,600 billion
tons in inventory. Inevitably, this resource will start emitting carbon at
greater than 122 billion tons per year. Eventually, all the excess storage will
result in excess emissions.
The initiative toward supercritical coal and biomass makes sense if one believes
that solid fuels can be an interim solution while other renewables such as wind
and solar are given time to develop to provide more economical power than they
do now. For more information on Fossil & Nuclear Power Generation:
World Analysis & Forecast
http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=72#n043
Significant Changes in FGD Technology are Predicted
Over 80 percent of the flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems installed around
the world utilize limestone as a reagent and spray towers to recirculate the
limestone slurry and capture the SO2. The McIlvaine Company
predicts that after forty years of use, this approach will give way to newer
technologies. These technologies will achieve higher efficiencies, consume
less energy, capture multiple pollutants and generate more valuable byproducts.
Forecasts by system type are included in the McIlvaine report FGD World
Markets. (www.mcilvainecompany.com)
Power plants will spend $4 billion for new FGD systems this year. They
will spend $18 billion to operate and maintain over 1.6 million MW of installed
systems. Many of these systems are either obsolete or unable to meet the latest
environmental requirements. In some cases, corrosion has been extreme and major
replacements of segments are necessary.
The first scrubbers applied at commercial scale in the 1968-72 period were tray
and mobile bed scrubbers. These were very efficient but required careful
chemistry control to avoid scaling. At the time there was not enough known
about chemistry control, so power plants looked for a solution in a simple spray
tower with no internals other than nozzles. This solution became a standard and
most scrubbers sold now are of the spray tower design.
Limestone is much less expensive than lime or sodium compounds. It is less
reactive. However, if you design the spray tower with enough height and
recirculating slurry, it is possible to achieve efficiencies in excess of 95
percent. The problem is that the size and flow to achieve 98 percent is
more than double that to achieve 90 percent. Many systems were installed
to achieve efficiencies as low as 80 percent. The average efficiency requirement
has been 90 percent. The latest environmental regulations are requiring
higher efficiencies. In some cases, the efficiency requirement is 99 percent.
Today there are a variety of options based on:
·
mode of operation (wet or dry)
·
need to remove multiple pollutants (HCl and mercury)
·
need for very high efficiency (98 percent or better)
·
demand for byproducts
·
water scarcity
·
better control chemistry
·
new designs with better economics
For more information on these options and predictions as to which will
dominate, click on FGD World Markets
http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48#n027.
Renewable Energy Briefs
Northern Power Systems Turbines Weather the Challenge of Hurricane Speed Winds
With turbines operating in extreme wind regimes such as the Caribbean and
northern Scotland, Northern Power Systems announced that its fleet of gearless
turbines that experience hurricane-speed winds has achieved 1 million run time
hours, all without incident. That is equivalent to a cumulative 114 years of
continuous, safe, high-performance operation.
As a testament to the design and engineering behind Northern Power turbines, all
74 units in the path of Hurricane Sandy when it blasted through in November 2012
were undamaged by the high winds. Once conditions returned to normal, each
turbine started generating electricity again.
SolarCity, Forest City Team to Install Solar on up to 6.500 Homes in Project at
Navy, Marine Corps Bases in Hawai’i
Construction has started on the first phase of a massive solar project by Forest
City Military Communities and SolarCity® to provide solar electricity to 6,500
military family residences at Ohana Military Communities (OMC), which serves
Navy Region Hawaii and Marine Corps Base Hawaii. The latest SolarStrong™ project
is scoped for a planned 24 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity, which would
make it the largest SolarCity has undertaken to date. SolarCity and Forest City
have finished installing the first 700 kilowatts of solar capacity at Marine
Corps Base Hawaii, and will soon initiate the first installations on Navy Region
Hawaii.
Primarily financed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the new project at Marine
Corps Base Hawaii and Navy Region Hawaii is expected to reduce Hawaii’s
dependence on the imported oil it uses to produce the majority of its
electricity.
Petroleum Development Oman and GlassPoint Commission the Middle East’s First
Solar EOR Project
Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), the largest producer of oil and gas in Oman,
and GlassPoint Solar, the global leader in solar enhanced oil recovery,
announced the successful commissioning of the Middle East’s first solar enhanced
oil recovery (EOR) project. By harnessing the sun’s energy with GlassPoint’s
Enclosed Trough technology, the solar EOR project produces a daily average of 50
tons of emissions-free steam that feeds directly into existing thermal EOR
operations at PDO’s Amal West field in Southern Oman. The 7 MW system is in
regular operation and recently passed its first performance acceptance test
since coming online, exceeding contracted steam output by 10 percent
GlassPoint’s unique Enclosed Trough design encloses parabolic mirrors inside a
glasshouse structure, protecting the solar collectors from harsh conditions of
high wind, dust, dirt, sand and humidity common to Middle East oilfields. The
glasshouse enclosure enables the use of ultra-light, low-cost reflective
materials and proven automated washing equipment, further reducing costs.
GlassPoint steam generators are designed to use the same low-quality boiler
water as once-through steam generators, the industry’s current standard,
eliminating the need for costly water pretreatment.
Kroger Unveils a Clean Energy Production System Powered by Food Waste
The Kroger Co. has unveiled a clean energy production system that will convert
food that can't be sold or donated into clean energy to help power its
Ralphs/Food 4 Less Compton distribution center.
The anaerobic conversion system will process more than 55,000 tons of organic
food waste into renewable energy annually and provide power for the over 650,000
square foot distribution center. By diverting that food waste —the equivalent of
150 tons per day — the system will also reduce area truck trips by more than
500,000 miles each year.
The Kroger Recovery System utilizes anaerobic digestion, to transform unsold
organics and onsite food-processing effluent into renewable biogas. This biogas
is then turned into power for onsite operations. The process is carried
out in an enclosed, oxygen-free environment, which means the process takes up
less space and generates no odors. The system will provide enough
renewable biogas to offset more than 20 percent of the energy demand of the
Ralphs/Food 4 Less distribution center.
Alterra Power and EDC Complete Joint Venture Agreement for Geothermal Assets in
Chile and Peru
Alterra Power Corp. announced the completion of a joint venture agreement with
Energy Development Corporation (EDC) for the development of Alterra's Mariposa
geothermal project in Chile plus three geothermal concessions held by Alterra in
Peru. The agreement calls for EDC to earn a 70 percent interest by funding 100
percent of the next $58.3 million in project expenditures at Mariposa, and $8
million in project expenditures on the Peruvian concessions. Advancement of
individual projects will occur under separate shareholder agreements which will
follow the commercial terms of the joint venture agreement. Such agreements are
expected to be executed later in 2013 subject to final documentation and project
evaluation by EDC.
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 the May 31, 2013 – Utility E-Alert
UTILITY E-ALERT
#1127 – May 31, 2013
Table of Contents
COAL – US
COAL – WORLD
§
Court of Appeals Maintains Decision stopping 600 MW Coal-fired Power Plant in
Subic
GAS/OIL – WORLD
NUCLEAR
§
Czech Government still supports Extension of Temelín Nuclear Power Plant
§
South African Consortium gets Contract for Koeberg Water Tanks
BUSINESS
HOT TOPIC HOUR
For more information on the Utility Tracking System, click on:
http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=72
“Monitoring and Optimizing Fuel Feed, Metering and Combustion in Boilers” is the
Hot Topic for Thursday,
June 13, 2013
Today, more than ever before, boiler operators are looking at efficiency
improvements as part of the solution to some of the regulatory and operating
concerns they are faced with. Efficiency improvement may the best solution to
keeping older coal-fired units operating economically. Improving efficiency of
the combustion process and heat recovery only a few percent can save hundreds of
thousands of dollars in fuel and other material costs. Improving boiler
efficiency will also reduce the total CO2 emissions and help to meet
the new regulations for GHG reduction being imposed by states and soon the U.S.
EPA as well as reduce emissions of other criteria pollutants.
Optimizing fuel feed rate and distribution in the boiler is one sure way to
improve combustion efficiency. The questions that need answers are: What are the
available systems, technologies and methods for monitoring and controlling fuel
feed, distribution and combustion and who provides them? Have these
systems, technology and methods been proven in other plants with the same
configuration as mine? What is the impact on maintenance and overall
operating cost? Is there a tradeoff between cost and efficiency improvement?
How will we get the best bang for the buck so to speak? Should we invest
in optimization software and/or additional monitoring instrumentation and/or new
fuel prep and injection hardware?
The following
speakers will help us understand the process of improving fuel feed,
distribution and combustion efficiency, how to obtain the optimum efficiency,
availability and performance, describe the technologies available and under
development with their applicability, capabilities, and limitations, costs
involved and the benefits that can be attained and describe their real world
experience with these technologies.
Ed Collet, Field
Service Engineer for Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, will discuss the
benefits of the Even Flow System for balancing fuel flow to burners. B&W has
successfully balanced coal flow in a roll wheel style pulverizer using a system
of internal elements known as the Even Flow System. By affecting the coal
flow in the turret of the pulverizer, there is a lesser impact on the primary
air distribution when moving the solid stream. Two methods have been used
to determine the needed bias of Even Flow elements, Flame Doctor flame quality
and air/fuel index along with overall CO emissions from the plant. Using
this methodology, Even Flow was able to reduce CO emissions by over 100ppm by
improving coal distribution to the burners.
Dave Early,
Co-founder of Combustion Technologies, will discuss control of coal feed to the
burners in a boiler. Proper metering of coal to the boiler is critical not just
to load control but to emissions, efficiency and reliability. Accurate
fuel feed to the mills, combined with accurate fuel feed to the burners, will
result in the best controllability of the boiler as well as the ability to
reduce CO, NOx and LOI. This paper will focus on the bulk
control to the mill as well as control of the coal in the individual pipes to
the burners. The use of real time, continuous burner line coal flow
measurement and precision control coal valves are some of the highlighted
products used to achieve these goals.
Robert E. Sommerlad
P.E. Consultant, will present “The Case for Fuel Delivery System Upgrades for
Utility Boilers.” Boilers 50 years and older comprise about 53 GW
or 20 percent of the total fleet capacity and 40 percent of all coal-fired
units. Most of these will be retired due either to normal business
decisions or to mandated upgrades to the air pollution control systems. The next
age group, the 30- to 45-year old units, comprise 216 GW and 63 percent of the
fleet with an average capacity of 500 MW. These units will bear the burden
of ensuring the usual high standards of performance, availability and
reliability. A vital part of any coal-fired unit is the Fuel Delivery
System (FDS), comprising the equipment from the silos to the burners, including
feeders, pulverizers, coal piping and burners. A committee of users,
suppliers and architect/engineers under an ASME Research Committee has
investigated a three typical 500-MW wall-, cyclone-, and tangential-fired
boilers originally designed for eastern coal and now firing PRB coals, selecting
retrofit upgrades to various parts of the FDS, determining costs and the value
of the ensuing benefits. The comparison of costs and benefits show
surprisingly near-term breakeven costs of 1, 2 and less than 1 years,
respectively for the wall-, cyclone-, and tangential-fired boilers.
To register for the Hot Topic Hour on June 13, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. (DST), click
on:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/hot_topic_hour_registration.htm.
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 $125.00
for non-subscribers.
Market Intelligence
webinars are free to McIlvaine market report subscribers and are $400.00
for non-subscribers.
|
2013 |
|
Date |
Subject |
|
June 13 |
Monitoring and Optimizing Fuel
Feed, Metering and Combustion in
Boilers |
Power |
June 20 |
Dry Sorbent Injection and
Material Handling for APC
|
Power |
June 27 |
Power Generation Forecast for
Nuclear, Fossil and Renewables |
Market Intelligence |
July 11 |
New Developments in Power Plant
Air Pollution Control |
Power |
July 18 |
Measurement and Control of HCl |
Power |
July 25 |
GHG Compliance Strategies,
Reduction Technologies and
Measurement |
Power |
August 1 |
Update on Coal Ash and CCP
Issues and Standards |
Power |
August 8 |
Improving Power Plant Efficiency
and Power Generation |
Power |
August 15 |
Control and Treatment Technology
for FGD Wastewater |
Power |
August 22 |
Status of Carbon Capture and
Storage Programs and Technology |
Power |
August 29 |
Pumps for Power Plant Cooling
Water and Water Treatment
Applications |
Power |
Sept. 5
|
Fabric Selection for Particulate
Control
|
Power |
Sept. 19 |
Air Pollution Control for Gas
Turbines |
Power |
Sept. 26 |
Multi-Pollutant Control
Technology
|
Power |
To register for the “Hot Topic Hour’, click on:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/hot_topic_hour_registration.htm.
----------
You can register for our free McIlvaine Newsletters at:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/Free_Newsletter_Registration_Form.htm.
Bob McIlvaine
President
847-784-0012 ext 112
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
www.mcilvainecompany.com
191 Waukegan Road Suite 208 | Northfield | IL 60093
Ph: 847-784-0012 | Fax: 847-784-0061
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