March 2015 - Power Air Quality Insights 197

The semiconductor industry has been reinventing itself continually. Moore’s law predicted that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since the integrated circuit was invented and would continue to do so. The opposite is true for coal-fired boiler power plants in the U.S. Most were built between 1950-1980 and are no more efficient now than when they were installed. Whereas the Chinese assume an economic life for a coal-fired power plant of 25 years, the U.S. tends to act as if the economic life is 50 years or more.

Most of the blame for this lack of progress falls on the regulators but some is also due to the philosophy of the operators. They have not been able to think outside the box. The focus has been on power generation rather than supply of useful products. A common attitude is “we are not a chemical plant and do not want to be in the chemical business.” The steam plumes emanating from cooling towers and stacks are a combination of wasted heat and water which could be used by co-generating partners. Power plants should think outside the box and consider a product mix which includes:

· Tipping fees for disposal of solid biomass waste from municipal and other sources.

Steam: There is an initiative to reduce coal-fired power plant CO₂ emissions by 30 percent over the next several decades. This can be achieved by shutting down 30 percent of the capacity or it can be achieved through cogeneration. Great Rivers Energy has demonstrated that by building the Blue Flint Ethanol plant on-site and through the new Spiritwood plant that it can achieve the 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gases for the combined power and cogeneration sources.

A new hot gas filtration technology produces clean gas at 850^oF. This will reduce parasitic energy for air pollution control and also allow efficient extraction of the heat in the flue gas. Industrial power plants have embraced this new technology but the power industry has not.

Chemicals: Last week McIlvaine observed that two technologies (leaching rare earths from flyash with hydrochloric acid and two-stage scrubbing producing hydrochloric acid and gypsum) can be combined to supply a very economical route for the U.S. to be self-sufficient in rare earth production. Other options include fertilizers such as ammonium sulfate and various forms of sulfur.

Powders: Many power plants already produce gypsum used in wallboards. However, there are products with higher revenue potential. Finely, ground pure gypsum can replace precipitated calcium carbonate for paper coatings in magazines and other glossy publications. Rather than produce gypsum, power plants can produce a chemically fixed landfill product which encapsulates toxics and reduces expenditures for wastewater treatment.

Solid waste tipping fees: New combustion techniques to gasify municipal solid waste offer a way for utilities to generate revenues from tipping fees, reduce coal consumption and reduce NO_x by introducing the gasified waste as a reburn fuel above the primary firing zone. Since air pollution systems on coal-fired power plants must already remove air toxics, there would not be any additional pollution control capital expense.

Deepwater Wind Block Island, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deepwater Wind, has fully financed the Block Island Wind Farm, reaching financial close on more than $290 million in project financing provided by Mandated Lead Arrangers Societe Generale of Paris, France, and KeyBank National Association of Cleveland, OH.

With these major agreements, Deepwater Wind has now secured all debt and equity funding needed to construct and operate its 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm – already under construction.

Deepwater Wind is the only United States offshore wind company to reach this critical milestone. The Block Island Wind Farm will be America’s first offshore wind farm.

U.S. Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell along with about 150 federal, state and local officials, and energy industry leaders, gathered February 9, 2015 to commission the 550-megawatt (MW) Desert Sunlight Solar Farm, located in Desert Center, Riverside County, CA.

Project owners NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy; GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of GE; and Sumitomo Corporation of Americas all helped flip the switch for the official commissioning of Desert Sunlight.

The Desert Sunlight Solar Farm is located on approximately 3,600 acres of land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Riverside County.

First Solar permitted, constructed and is now operating the plant, which uses over 8 million First Solar modules. The power generated is being provided to Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Southern California Edison both under long-term contracts.

Mainstream Renewable Power Launches $1.9 Billion Pan-African Renewable Energy Platform

Global wind and solar company Mainstream Renewable Power has announced the launch of a pan-African renewable energy generation platform, Lekela Power, which it has formed along with Actis, the global pan-emerging market private equity firm. Lekela Power will provide between 700 and 900 megawatts of wind and solar power across Africa by 2018.

Mainstream announced financial close and the start of construction for three wind farms in South Africa which will form the core of the Lekela platform. The projects, which have a combined capacity of 360 MW, are located in the country’s Northern Cape and were awarded to Mainstream as part of the Government’s Renewable Energy Procurement Program. They are expected to reach commercial operation beginning in 2016. Mainstream also has a pipeline of other projects across Africa which will transfer to the Lekela platform at financial close including the 225 megawatt Ayitepa wind project in Ghana.

Southern Company Subsidiary Acquires Two Georgia Solar Projects Totaling 99 MW

Southern Company subsidiary Southern Power announced the acquisition of two photovoltaic (PV) solar projects totaling 99 megawatts (MW) in Georgia – the 80-MW Decatur Parkway Solar Project and the 19-MW Decatur County Solar Project – from Tradewind Energy, Inc.

The projects were proposed by Tradewind Energy, Inc. and selected by Southern Company subsidiary Georgia Power in a competitive process through the nationally recognized Georgia Power Advanced Solar Initiative.

The electricity and associated renewable energy credits (RECs) generated by the 80-MW facility will be sold under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Georgia Power. Construction of the 80-MW facility is currently scheduled to begin in March.

Georgia Power will purchase the energy generated from the 19-MW project under a 20-year PPA. Southern Power will retain the associated RECs, which it may sell to third parties. Construction of the 19-MW facility is currently scheduled to begin in June.

The projects, which are expected to enter commercial operation in late 2015, will be constructed on separate sites totaling approximately 950 acres in South Georgia's Decatur County using single-axis tracking technology – optimizing efficiency by directing solar panels to track the sun.

Saft’s Energy Storage System to be at Heart of Project on Grid Integration of Variable Renewable Energies on Remote Japanese Island

Saft has been awarded its first energy storage system (ESS) contract in Japan to supply a containerized lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery system for a remote island microgrid project conducted by Takaoka Toko Co., Ltd. – a subsidiary of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). The demonstration project on NiiJima Island will comprise diesel generators, solar panels and wind power installations working in various combinations to optimize the usage of renewable energy resources.

The Japanese government is leading the way in the development of renewable energy in order to reduce the country’s dependency on fossil and nuclear based energy generation. This has resulted in the setting of targets to increase the proportion of electricity to be generated from renewable sources from the current 10 percent to 13.5 percent (approximately 141 billion kWh) in 2020 and 20 percent by 2030. For an experimental period of 5 years, this project has as its principal objective to highlight the technical challenges (such as expected electric power quality and grid management) that need addressing when renewable energies – especially wind generation – are associated with electric power systems and to study the related solutions.

Niijima is a volcanic island in the Philippine Sea, South-East from Tokyo at about two and a half-hours by jet boat. Its small area and population of around 3,000 people is the perfect location for this demonstration project as a miniature model of Japan in anticipation for 2030.

· PUCO rejects Deal to have Ratepayers subsidize a Coal-fired Power Plant

· Siemens to supply Gas Turbines for Holland, MI Combined Cycle Power Plant

· El Paso nears completion of First Two 88 MW Gas-fired Units at Montana Power Plant

· Wärtsilä signs Contract with Shanghai Electric for Emission Reductions to Maltese Power Plant

· Alfa Laval wins Order to supply Compact Heat Exchangers to Middle East Power Plant

· European Commission opens an in-depth probe of GE's takeover of Alstom's Power Division

· AFS and Filtration News join McIlvaine in creating a New Route to Market for You

· Mercury Hot Topic Hour February 26 explores Ways to optimize Performance

· “Mercury Measurement and Capture” Hot Topic Hour continues on March 5^th, 2015

“Power Plant Wastewater Treatment Options and Obstacles Expand” – “Hot Topic Hour” March 12, 2015

New effluent guidelines will require investments by utilities to discharge cleaner wastewater. The air toxic rules are causing airborne metals to be captured in scrubbers. This results in the need to remove selenium, mercury and other toxics from the wastewater discharges.

The difficulty and time to obtain a discharge permit is leading many GTCC plant builders to invest in zero liquid discharge systems. They may also utilize treated municipal wastewater. New solid waste rules will eliminate power plant ash ponds.

McIlvaine is addressing all the options and obstacles in “Power Plant Systems and Components.” A series of webinars on power plant water and wastewater are being recorded and included in the service. Live discussions are enhanced by questions and comments from participants. So join us on March 12 and hear the following presenters:

Brian M. Clarke, P.E., Water Treatment Project Manager, Kiewit Engineering & Design Co.

Barbara Carney, Chemical Engineer, Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory

Caroline Dale, Principal Engineer - Biological Processes, WATER TECHNOLOGIES, Veolia Water North America

NO_x Control Options Analyzed By Q & A in March 26, 2015 “Hot Topic Hour”

There are a number of new technologies which increase the options available for NO_x reduction. All of these are already analyzed on the Power Plant Air Quality Decisions website. This website is free of charge to all power plants around the world. This means that the utility participants can enter this discussion pre-armed with the claimed benefits of alternative choices. They can ask questions as can the A/Es and suppliers to clarify the performance and cost of the choices as they apply to the unique site specific needs of the individual power plants. Advocates of the various technologies will be available to answer questions posed by the utilities and by the host.

There are lots of good conferences where you can listen to the speakers but you only have a few minutes for discussion. At EUEC, Frank Fitch of Linde laid out the advantages of using ozone ahead of scrubbers. How does this compare to SCR or SNCR on a cost basis for a specific plant with unique plant layout and NO_x generation aspects? Can this technology be used as a trim technology?

Martin Schroter of Dürr will give a presentation on ceramic catalytic filters with DSI in the McIlvaine Dry Scrubbing webinar on March 19. Can the catalytic filter deliver the efficiency needed by specific utilities? Could it be used prior to the LoTOx? What about SNCR in combination with both?

Haldor Topsoe and FLS are launching two versions of catalytic filters, one for 450^oF and another for 850^oF. How should they be evaluated?

There are lots of ways that hybrid systems can combine for optimum results. These have been covered in our November 6 webinar (see summaries below).

There are also lots of analyses of ways to minimize SCR costs including strategic replacement of catalyst layers and catalyst regeneration.

A range of issues will be discussed. Here are some of the past presentations:

Mark covered a number of innovations developed by this unique organization which operates power plants, provides engineering and also provides services such as catalyst renovation.

Tags: 221112 - Fossil Fuel 化石燃料, STEAG Energy Services, SCR, SNCR, Catalyst Maintenance, Germany

George discussed cost effective NO_x reduction solutions for small and medium sized boilers.

Tags: 221112 - Fossil Fuel 化石燃料, LP Amina, SCR, SNCR, Burner, China

Marc showed data to support the claim that advances in furnace controls can be more economically attractive than SCR for some power plants.

Tags: 221112 - Fossil Fuel 化石燃料, Reaction Engineering International, SCR, SNCR

Work by EPRI and Reaction Engineering in the U.S., Steag in Europe and LP Amina in China underlined the international nature of research and progress in NO_x control. All three presenters talked about ways to combine NO_x control technologies in the furnace and the back end of the system in order to maximize cost effectiveness of NO_x control.

Tags: 221112 - Fossil Fuel 化石燃料, STEAG Energy Services, Reaction Engineering International, LP Amina, SCR, SNCR, Catalyst Maintenance, Burner, China, Germany

This plant installed a hot ESP to reduce the dust loading to a new SCR to 2 g/m³. This allowed selection of a relatively small amount of catalyst with narrow openings. This decision was made as an alternative of reheating gas and then locating the SCR at the tail end of the process. This unit has been installed since 2012 and is reported to be operating with some problems according to Bernhard Kopf of Lafarge. The problem is that the ESP is not meeting the predicted emission limits and is running much higher and, therefore, the catalyst requires periodic cleaning. However, deactivation has been negligible.

In many facilities there may be room for process improvement that could reduce operating costs or provide revenue enhancement opportunities. Operating SNCR or SCR technology closer to its limit offers these benefits but increases the risk of high ammonia slip. The risk could be abated with the use of ammonia monitoring technology. But, except for gas-fired plants, continuous ammonia slip monitoring technologies have not been available at a practical price to facilitate these cost-saving or revenue enhancing improvements. Conditions that exist in high dust, high temperature, high NO_x and/or high SO₂ environments make most analyzer methods of continuously measuring ammonia unsuitable for application to coal-fired power plants. An overview of the technologies available for measuring ammonia in the high dust region downstream of a NO_x reduction system and the status of their development is provided.

Tags: 221112 - Fossil Fuel 化石燃料, 221112 - Fossil Fuel 化石燃料, Andover Technology Partners, SNCR, Ammonia, Tunable Diode Laser Spectroscopy, Continuous Emissions Monitor, SCR

Straightening the flow at KCP&L LaCygne Unit 1 has provided uniform flow in the SCR hood to prevent flyash accumulation. This results in reduced catalyst replacement costs and reduced vacuum removal costs for deposits, according to Reid Thomas.

Tags: 221112 - Fossil Fuel 化石燃料, Fuel Tech, Mercury, Chemical, SCR, Mercury Removal

Due to strict NO_x emission limits, the Mellach Combined Cycle Power Station in Austria installed two SCRs integrated into the HRSGs. This presentation provides a case study of the installation and provides information about Europe’s emission limits for combined cycle power plants.

Tags: 221112 - Fossil Fuel 化石燃料, Andritz, Verbund Thermal Power, SCR, Ammonia Injection Grid, Catalyst, Regulation, Policies, Air Pollution Control

Balancing the requirements of each SCR system in the fleet can be challenging. A system can reduce NO_x by greater than 95 percent, but, when the efficiency of the SCR is pushed beyond 85 percent and—or, if—the outlet emissions are less than 5 ppm, the system becomes much more sensitive to several independent system parameters. These include overall catalytic potential, effective ammonia injection/mixing in the flue-gas stream, flue-gas characteristics for inlet NO_x, velocity, and temperature distributions. Issues can be addressed by high-efficiency SCR designs with system modeling, flow correction devices, enhanced catalyst volumes, and a robust ammonia injection grid design.

Tags: 221112 - Fossil Fuel 化石燃料, Cormetech, Catalyst, SCR, Air Pollution Control, Combined Cycle Journal

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
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)