Measuring Particulate Continuously is Hot Topic Hour on December 1, 2011
Since the Utility MACT was first proposed by the EPA in May, many persons have
expressed concern over the ability of the industry to accurately measure mass
particulates at the limits proposed by EPA. In various presentations both during
McIlvaine Company Hot Topic Hours and elsewhere, concerned parties have
questioned the accuracy and efficacy of the EPA test procedures. Some have
presented evidence of errors and biases in and between various test procedures.
Measurement accuracy can have a serious impact on existing sources that may not
meet the new limits once the MACT and the proposed test methods within it and
the Cross State Air Pollution (transport) Rule (CSAPR) become the law of the
land.
The following speakers will describe the current and proposed methods for
continuous measurement of particulates, tell participants what they need to do
to ensure accurate, repeatable data and to discuss the implications for the
utility industry of errors in their measurement data.
Derek Stuart, Market Sector Manager for Combustion and
Environmental at AMETEK Land, will discuss opacity measurement for determining
the PM in stack gases. The use of transmissometry to measure smoke and dust
emissions from stacks dates back to the work of Professor Ringelmann in the 19th
century. For many years, continuous opacity monitors have been used to
demonstrate compliance with emissions regulations in the USA. Calibrating an
opacity monitor to measure PM according to 40 CFR 60 Appendix B Performance
Standard 11 is relatively straightforward and provides a direct, reliable
measurement of PM concentration.
David Moll, Senior Program Manager at AECOM Environment, will
discuss the different types of continuous particulate emission monitors, their
measurement techniques and limitations to perform measurements on certain
emission sources. He will review EPA certification requirements for PM
CEMs and the EPA test procedures used to correlate these instruments. He
will also discuss upcoming challenges for industry if included in the final
Utility MACT regulations.
Craig Clapsaddle, BetaGuard PM Sales Manager at Mechanical
Systems, Inc, will briefly describe the MSI
BetaGuard PM CEM and discuss what companies can do to insure accurate,
repeatable data from their PM CEMs.
Anand Mamidipudi,
Product Line Manager, Systems at Thermo Fisher Scientific/Thermo Environmental
Instruments.
Kevin Crosby, Technical Director at The Avogadro Group, LLC,
Stationary Source Testing
The EPA Performance Specification for PM CEMS requires a significant amount of
testing for determination of the system's accuracy and precision. The
presentation will describe the daily and periodic procedures required to assure
the quality of the data from the monitoring system. These include initial
calibration and correlation testing, daily calibration checks and quarterly
audits - Absolute Correlation Audits, Response Correlation Audits and Relative
Response Audits. These procedures include a significant number of
particulate emission test runs using EPA reference methods, so costs can become
significant. Some potential certification and auditing problems will be
described so that plant personnel may plan for success and for cost control.
To register for this “Hot Topic Hour” on Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 10:00
a.m. CST, click on:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/hot_topic_hour_registration.htm.
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Here are the Headlines for the November 18, 2011 – Utility E Alert
UTILITY E-ALERT
#1051
– November 18, 2011
Table of Contents
COAL – US
COAL – WORLD
GAS / OIL – US
GAS / OIL – WORLD
BIOMASS
CO2
NUCLEAR
BUSINESS
HOT TOPIC HOUR
For more information on the Utility Environmental
Upgrade Tracking System, click on:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/energy.html#42ei.
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Mercury Control Market to Soar with New Utility Toxic Regulations
A $1 billion per year new market will be created with the promulgation of the
rule to require Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) for utility power
generators in the U.S. Revenues will be a mix of capital equipment and
consumables according to the McIlvaine Company in its continually updated,
Mercury Air Reduction Markets.
This one rule will completely transform the activated carbon industry in the
U.S. The big market in the past has been to treat water. The usage
is 500 million pounds per year. The usage in air treatment was less than 50
million pounds per year but sharply increased in the past two years as a number
of utilities were required to meet MACT rules promulgated by individual states.
When the Federal MACT rule takes effect, the utility air market alone will
exceed the water market. The industry has anticipated the demand. The
traditional suppliers, Calgon Carbon and Norit, have expanded capacity.
Albemarle has acquired Sorbent Technologies and positioned itself as a major
supplier. ADA-ES has entered the market with construction of a large activated
carbon plant.
There is considerable uncertainty about the ultimate size of the market.
On one hand, there is attractive potential for activated carbon in related
applications. Presently, selenium is being captured in power plant
scrubbers. It is subsequently removed from the wastewater with an expensive
biological wastewater treatment system. Plants with scrubbers would not
normally consider activated carbon purchases. However, the removal of the
selenium may warrant the purchase.
Another use in scrubbers is to recirculate activated carbon in the scrubber
slurry. Evonik has pioneered this approach as a means of removing the mercury
from the wastewater sludge. The mercury laden carbon is separated from the
wastewater using hydrocyclones. This allows disposal of the sludge as a
non-hazardous material.
There is also negative uncertainty, as other chemicals will take market share
away from activated carbon. There are some sorbents which are injected in a
manner identical to activated carbon. The purpose is to adsorb the mercury by
presenting a large surface area. So far none of these has proven to be
more cost effective.
The bigger threat comes from chemicals injected with the coal for the purpose of
chemical change rather than adsorption. Oxides of mercury are much more soluble
than elemental mercury. Halogen compounds including bromium and chlorine can
oxidize most of the mercury in the flue gas. The result is that scrubbers can
then efficiently remove the oxides. The uncertainty arises relative to how
efficient this removal process may be.
The uncertainty is increased by the wide variations between fuels and boiler
types and the many factors which influence efficiency of removal. There is
further uncertainty as to the influence of the multi-pollutant requirement
impact on mercury removal choices. The necessity to remove hydrogen
chloride and toxic metals other than mercury is a factor.
Ultimately the PM2.5 ambient air quality rules may have the largest
impact on mercury reduction choices. Conceivably they could force scrubbers to
achieve 98 percent or even 99 percent SO2 removal. This would dictate
the use of wet rather than dry scrubbers. It would dictate chemical oxidation
rather than adsorption.
The impact of PM2.5 is not likely to manifest itself until 2016 or
2017 and maybe even later. In fact, if the rest of the U.S. follows the Los
Angeles example, it will be a slow process. A state will promulgate one rule
assuming this will meet the ambient air target. A few years later, when it is
clear that additional reduction is necessary, it will promulgate another rule,
so compliance could take decades.
Utilities are likely to take a two-stage approach. The capital investment in
activated carbon injection equipment is modest. So many companies may ultimately
remove mercury first with activated carbon and later with chemical oxidation and
scrubbing.
For more information on Mercury Air Reduction Markets
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/air.html#n056
Solar Technology Constantly Improves
Advances in solar technology are being made at a steady rate. A few of the
recent improvements reported in McIlvaine’s Renewable Energy Update and
Projects follow.
*****
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the offer of a conditional commitment
for a $150 million loan guarantee to 1366 Technologies, Inc. for the development
of a multicrystalline wafer manufacturing project. The project will be capable
of producing approximately 700 to 1,000 MW of silicon-based wafers annually
using a revolutionary manufacturing process called Direct Wafer. The innovative
process could reduce manufacturing costs of the wafers by approximately 50
percent, dramatically cutting the cost of solar power. Phase 1 of the project
will be located in Lexington, MA and is expected to generate 70 permanent jobs
and 50 construction jobs. The company is evaluating site locations for another
planned phase, which they anticipate will create hundreds of additional jobs.
*****
First Solar, Inc. announced it set a new world record for cadmium-telluride
(CdTe) PV solar cell efficiency, reaching 17.3 percent with a test cell
constructed using commercial-scale manufacturing equipment and materials. The
test cell’s performance, confirmed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National
Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), far surpassed the previous record of 16.7 percent
set in 2001.
The average efficiency of First Solar modules produced in the first quarter of
2011 was 11.7 percent, up from 11.1 percent a year earlier, and the company has
recorded full-module efficiencies over 13.5 percent, with a 13.4 percent module
confirmed by NREL. First Solar’s module efficiency roadmap sets a goal for
production-module efficiencies of 13.5-14.5 percent by the end of 2014.
*****
XsunX, Inc., the developer of CIGSolar™ , a hybrid, thin-film
photovoltaic (TFPV) solar cell manufacturing process, announced that the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) certified the peak efficiency
conversion of 16.36 percent achieved by XsunX, Inc. for
Copper-Indium-Gallium-(di)selenide (CIGS) photovoltaic devices.
Overall efficiency of tested samples ranged from15.3 percent to 16.36 percent
producing an average efficiency of 15.91 percent. The sample provided to NREL
was part of a 125mm substrate which after deposition was sub-divided into
quadrants to produce NREL device test structures and analytical equipment test
structures. The purpose was to provide a statistically significant body of data
in support of XsunX’s continuous process improvement efforts.
The company’s technology utilizes co-evaporation for rapid deposition of
final-sized cells to better control the complex management of the CIGS layer
deposition process. The company’s method, unlike other CIGS manufacturing
technology, begins and ends using individual substrates sized to match silicon
cells. In addition to providing for a smaller and more precise deposition
environment, this also helps to avid performance losses experienced when cells
are either cut from rolls of CIGS material or mismatched electrically in
monolithic assemblies.
*****
Southwest Solar Technologies, Inc. announced the successful on-sun testing and
proof of concept of a high temperature air receiver. The high temperature air
receiver is a prototype test component to validate the design for the advanced
solar-turbine power system being developed by the company. The company’s system
uses a parabolic solar dish with mirrors to concentrate the sun’s energy to
power a high-efficiency turbine engine and produce electricity.
The testing was conducted using the company’s, 320 square meter solar
concentrating dish, the largest solar dish in North America. The dish is capable
of delivering over a quarter megawatt of thermal energy in the form of
concentrated sunlight, focusing the equivalent heat of 2,000 suns into the
proprietary design “receiver.” Inside this receiver compressed air is
super-heated to power a high speed turbine alternator. Initial testing was
conducted with attenuation screens on the dish to reduce the input energy to 50
kWth, approximately 20 percent of full capacity. Even at this reduced power, the
receiver operated at the temperature goal of 925 C (1700 F), and met goals for
efficiency.
“This high temperature performance achieved far exceeds typical 400°C
temperature of other concentrating solar power (CS) systems, such as trough and
power towers, that use steam turbine technology to produce electricity, and the
system requires no water cooling. The company’s unique air based turbine cycle,
operating at much higher temperatures, is designed to achieve greater than 30
percent efficiency. This efficiency would far exceed typical PV or other CSP
solar power systems,” said Herb Hayden, Chief Technical Officer.
*****
Solar3D, Inc., the developer of a breakthrough 3-dimensional solar cell
technology to maximize the conversion of sunlight into electricity, announced
that it is consulting with outside manufacturing experts to optimize the
prototype design for low-cost mass production.
Inspired by light management techniques used in fiber optic devices, the
company’s innovative solar cell technology utilizes a 3-dimensional design to
trap sunlight inside micro-photovoltaic structures where photons bounce around
until they are converted into electrons. Solar3D’s management believes that this
breakthrough solar cell design will dramatically change the economics of solar
energy.
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
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Bob McIlvaine
President
847-784-0012 ext 112
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
www.mcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
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