FGD and DeNOx NEWSLETTER

· Equinor is Partnering with Drax and NG Ventures to Provide the CO₂ Sequestration

· Opportunistic Biomass - CCS Program Is the Route chosen by the UK and Japan

· GE Supplying Boiler and Fabric Filter for High-efficiency Biomass Power Plant in Japan

· Gypsum Board Market Is Increasing Expeditiously Owing to Rising intake of Product in Residential Real Estate Segment Until 2025

· MHPS Signs MOU with EVNGENCO 3 to Provide O&M Support for Power Plants in Vietnam

McIlvaine Company has stated that the Opportunistic Biomass-CCS, including the trillion-tree program, can be embraced as a climate change solution by everyone. One of the important requirements is to recognize the life quality goals of poor Asians. Here is the perspective on this subject in an article in Forbes written by Tilak Doshi, an energy economist who has analyzed the Asian market for decades.

“The reigning narrative of impending global environmental catastrophe dominates the airwaves and print media. Short of a drastic reduction in the use of fossil fuels, it is asserted, we are fast approaching the “end of days.” The demonization of fossils fuels in general, and coal in particular, has been wrought under pressure from special interest groups and organized lobbies of the climate-industrial complex where aspects of economic reality are caricatured or presented out of context. Complex trade-offs in energy policy are spun into tales of spurious simplicity, leading to misleading conclusions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the debate over the role of coal-fueled power generation in Asia.

Opposition to the building of coal power plants in the poorer countries has been justified by environmental activists, banks and multilateral development agencies such as the World Bank in two key ways. The first revolves around the claim that climate change mitigation programs carry “co-benefits” or public health in developing countries. The second utilizes the assertion that renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, are effective substitutes for centralized grid electricity generated by fossil fuels.

The claim that aggressive climate change mitigation programs help the poor is egregiously misleading.

Modern coal plants are a success story, as pollutants emitted have fallen dramatically with technological improvements over the past several decades. Key pollutants that adversely affect human health include carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxide (SO₂), oxides of nitrogen (NO_x), ground level ozone and particulate matter (PM). A new pulverized coal plant, with flue gas scrubbers, fabric filters, catalytic reduction and other control equipment and processes, reduces NO_x by 83 percent, SO₂ by 98 percent and PM by 99.8 percent compared to a similar plant without such pollution control features, according to the US Department of Energy.

Ambient air pollution in both urban and rural areas in developing countries is a real problem, but it is primarily due to the indoor burning of solid biomass in cooking and heating. The use of charcoal, wood, dung and crop residues within households is caused by the lack of access to grid electricity and modern fuels such as LPG. The World Health Organization reports that close to 4 million people die prematurely from illness attributable to indoor air pollution each year. The real solution, as apparent in the experience of the now developed countries, is to remove the need for using traditional biomass by providing affordable electricity and cleaner fuels. Coal power plants also lay the basis for improved public health with adequate clean water supply and refrigeration for food supply chains and the storage of vaccines in hospitals.

The second misleading claim is that intermittent sources of renewable energy can replace the need for grid-supplied power based on fossil fuels. An endless litany of “green” success stories permeates the mainstream media with the erroneous believe that that wind and solar power are “already competitive” with fossil fuels. Rigorous economic analyses of the hidden costs of unreliable, weather-dependent solar and wind power have countered such claims as an exercise in magical thinking. According to data reported by energy generators to regulatory authorities in the US, wind and solar power are two to three times more expensive than existing coal or gas-fueled power.

Perhaps the best response to the renewable energy hype is provided by the example of Dharnai, a small village in India’s Bihar state, which lacked access to the country’s electricity grid. In 2014, Greenpeace activists set up a solar-powered microgrid for the village to much fanfare. Almost immediately, problems emerged with the load put on the village solar “grid” as households began to hook appliances such as rice cookers, electric water heaters, irons, space heaters and air coolers. On the day of inauguration of the solar power system in the village, its inhabitants protested with banners stating, “we want real electricity, not fake electricity.” As explained by the reporter at the location, “By ‘real’, they meant power from the central grid, generated mostly using coal. By ‘fake’, they meant solar.” In wonderful irony, the embarrassed government VIPs present for the gala opening of the Greenpeace-promoted solar showpiece ensured that the village was shortly connected to the coal-fired power grid.”

An Opportunistic Bio-CCS program is the solution, which should unite both the alarmists and deniers. This program sucks CO₂ out of the air and is therefore potentially far more effective than wind or solar. If it is coupled with a trillion-tree planting program it may not be necessary to convert many coal-fired power plants to burn biomass and then sequester all the CO₂. If the doomsday scenario becomes a reality, then it will be cost effective to convert all existing fossil plants to biomass and sequester the CO₂.

Before any decisions are finalized, we should carefully consider what constitutes quality of life as viewed by individuals who have tribal values and different discount ratios for future values. For example, contrast the father in India with no electricity and a wood stove vs. a wealthy Miami Beach retiree setting up trusts for his grandchildren.

Thanks to the breakthroughs on carbon capture and sequestration at many sites and the progress at Drax on cost competitive biomass combustion, “sucking the CO₂” out of the air is commercial and maybe not too expensive.

Why do we need an opportunistic strategy? The answer is that climate change impacts are uncertain. In the succeeding articles we quote the director of the NASA Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science who points out that CO₂ has been much higher and lower in the past and there was no Antarctic ice at times and lots of it at other times. The average sea level of the period has been several hundred feet higher than presently. We also include an article on the wildfires in Australia. Fifty arsonists have been arrested. Over the last decades Australia, including NSW, has been wetter than normal — 2019 was the one dry year. If fossil burning caused the drought last year then it must have caused the decades-long wet streak as well.

These are two examples to show that there are two sides to the story. Therefore, an opportunistic approach is highly warranted.

Advocates of the elimination of all fossil fuels are motivated by quality of life concerns. South Asian countries building coal-fired power plants are motivated by quality of life concerns. The key to a policy with broadest support lies in an agreement on quality of life goals.

This agreement takes on a new urgency due the breakthrough on methods to “suck the CO₂out of the air.” Commercial success with biomass combustion and CO₂ sequestration means that this is the preferred power source to reduce CO₂ in the atmosphere. If all the fossil-fired power plants in the world substituted biomass and then sequestered the CO₂, we would be reducing the CO₂ in the atmosphere as fast as we were once increasing it.

If the biomass combustion/sequestration was also combined with the trillion-tree program, we would rapidly be on our way to achieving low levels of CO₂ not seen since the 1800s.

The cost of the fuel options varies widely. So, quality of life impacts vs. cost has to be considered. If one accepts the worst-case scenario of climate impact on life quality with immediate intolerable fires and floods, then there ought to be large sums spent to convert existing coal plants to biomass and sequester CO₂. This is the UK policy and is being implemented by the Drax, NG, Equinor consortium.

The main concern with this heroic effort is that it may be solar activity rather than fossil-fired power plants that cause climate change. We could be spending trillions of dollars and not changing the outcome. Rather than argue absolutes let’s use an approach to evaluate life quality changes of all the options.

Life quality can be measured in Quality Enhanced Life Days (QELD) as influenced by tribal values and the need to discount future values. An Indian family now using cooking fires and inhaling fine particulate would experience a positive change in life quality once electricity reaches them. Alternatively, the great grandchildren of the Indian family may benefit most from a prohibition of coal-fired power plants. Here is where one has to discount future value in making a decision.

A wealthy Miami Beach family will receive no benefits from the construction of a power plant in India. In fact, CO₂ does not have geographical bounds. Here is where one has to take into account tribal values. What is good for India may not be good for the U.S.

This logical approach is needed to resolve the climate change controversy. The minimal discount of future value is reflected in the policy of treating methane based on the 100-year impact rather than short term. If the concern is short term, why use a metric based on 100 years.

The Opportunistic Biomass Combustion and Sequestration opens the door for a policy that can be endorsed by all sides in the controversy. Because this approach, along with the trillion-tree initiative, sucks CO₂ out of the air, there is no longer a tipping point. Investment in climate change initiatives can be based on a careful assessment of QELD.

Equinor is Partnering with Drax and NG Ventures to Provide the CO₂ Sequestration

Equinor is among the world's largest net sellers of crude oil and condensate and also has substantial processing and refining operations.

It has 21,000 employees developing oil, gas, wind and solar energy in more than 30 countries worldwide. It is the largest operator in Norway, one of the world’s largest offshore operators, and a growing force in renewables.

For many years, Equinor has been running carbon capture projects of various sizes in Norway and Algeria, successfully maturing the technology from the R&D stage to operations, including Mongstad CCS, In Salah, Snøhvit and Sleipner.

The European carbon dioxide Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) in Norway and In Salah in Algeria were both important steps in the development of CCS, with In Salah being the first geological storage of carbon dioxide in a producing gas reservoir and TCM allowing detailed research on how to scale up CCS.

Equinor continues to work towards the goal of commercial CCS and evaluate opportunities to reduce its own CO₂ emissions and explore Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) possibilities. To date it has separated and stored over 20 million tons of CO₂ underground. The current operations, Snøhvit and Sleipner are pushing the industry forward in this area, using stored CO₂ to increase value creation through increased production on the two fields.

NGV is separate from National Grid’s core-regulated businesses and home to a diverse portfolio of energy businesses that deliver competitive products and services for a broad range of customers.

It develops, operates and invests in energy projects, technologies, and partnerships to help accelerate the development of a clean energy future for consumers across the UK, Europe and the United States. NG believes that storing carbon emissions from energy-intensive sectors brings clean growth to industrial areas, supporting the delivery of a clean energy future. The partnership could lead to the Humber becoming the world’s first net-zero carbon region and home to a new world-leading hydrogen economy.

Commenting on the partnership, Jon Butterworth, Chief Operating Officer, Global Transmission, National Grid Ventures, said, “We all agree that we must act now to start delivering a ‘net-zero’ carbon economy and we’re delighted to be working together with Equinor and Drax. This is a project of great potential for the UK and the Humber region, and we look forward to leveraging our skills and expertise to enable this transition.

“We have seen rapid progress in decarbonizing energy through established technologies such as wind power, solar and electricity interconnectors. CCUS and hydrogen create a new pathway to greater decarbonization of the energy system and provide a platform for decarbonizing other areas of our economy; which will be to the benefit of current and future generations.”

This is the first significant action from industry since the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) recently published its Net Zero report, which found that CCUS and hydrogen technology developed in regional industrial clusters is essential if Great Britain is going to achieve a ‘net zero’ carbon economy by 2050.

A study outlining the technical, economic and societal opportunities for CCUS and hydrogen in the Humber region will be published by the partners later this year.

In a December 2019 interview in the Financial Times the CEO of Drax discussed the costs of biomass combustion. Will Gardiner, who took charge of UK energy company Drax in January, talked about what would be done in the next 10 years to make the company more profitable. The main asset is the UK’s biggest power plant. Four of the plant’s six generating units produce power by burning wood pellets, which the UK government counts as renewable, attracting subsidies that added up to 19 percent of Drax’s £4.2 billion revenues last year. However, in 2027 these subsidies will expire.

Last year, the UK’s Committee on Climate Change said “sustainably harvested” biomass — which does not contribute to deforestation for instance — can help decarbonize the economy but subsidies should be shifted away from biomass for electricity generation, unless plants are fitted with carbon capture and storage technology. This involves burying carbon emissions in depleted oil and gas fields. Earlier this year, Drax became the first wood-burning plant in the world to capture carbon dioxide produced in energy generation but had to release it back into the atmosphere because it lacked storage capability.

Mr. Gardiner is on a drive to cut the cost of generating electricity from biomass from £75-£80 per megawatt hour to £50 by 2027. This, he believes, would put Drax in a position to survive without subsidy. This target still looks high compared to other renewables, such as wind; some wind developers this year pledged to build schemes in UK waters for a guaranteed electricity price of £39.65/MWh. At the moment, the guaranteed price for one of the Drax biomass subsidy agreements is £114/MWh. Mr. Gardiner said Drax would compete to provide power at peak times, when market prices are around £58/MWh.

Drax also intends to change its biomass sourcing. It currently produces 1.5m tonnes of wood pellets itself at plants in U.S. Gulf states such as Louisiana. These are then shipped across the Atlantic. It forecasts it will need to increase this to 5m tonnes by 2027. Plans are already under way to increase capacity at its current plants to 1.85m tonnes by next year but it will also have to find alternatives to sustainable wood pellets, which are in limited supply. Options include bagasse — sugar cane residue — but the company has not yet fixed on a solution.

Petra Nova is the only operating large-scale power generation carbon capture facility in the U.S. W.A. Parish was selected due to its proximity to carbon sequestration opportunities in oilfields. Additionally, Texas offered abatement of half of the EOR severance tax, franchise tax credits, and property and sales tax exemptions. NRG entered into a joint venture with JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corporation and received $190 million in cost sharing from the U.S. Department of Energy and a $250 million loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. NRG and JX Nippon each contributed up to $300 million in equity. Hilcorp, the oilfield operator, estimates that EOR from captured CO₂ will increase the field’s output from 300 to 15,000 barrels per day. The project breaks even with oil prices at $50 per barrel. As of January 31, Brent Crude is $56/barrel.

Given current technology, EOR is the most attractive option for CCUS on coal-fired power plants. The oil industry is a highly motivated customer. Based on the U.S. Energy Information Administration oil market projections, CO₂-EOR will be worth approximately $26 per metric ton in 2020 and up to $40 per metric ton by 2050. EOR can recover up to 28 billion additional barrels of oil. The biggest barrier to additional utilization of CO₂-EOR is affordable CO₂ supply. CO₂ pipelines are a critical component of affordability. NETL estimates that the CO₂- EOR industry has spent $1 billion on 2,200 miles of CO₂ pipelines in the Permian Basin. Additional opportunities for CO₂-EOR exist in unconventional oil extraction. Residual oil zones (ROZ) located in the Permian Basin in west Texas contain 238 billion barrels of oil, according to analysis by Advanced Resources International. With CO₂-EOR, ARI estimates the area contains 18 billion economically recoverable barrels.

Internationally, large-scale operational power generation projects can be found at Boundary Dam in Canada, Caledonia Clean Energy in the United Kingdom, and a handful of projects in East Asia — four in China and two in South Korea. GCCSI counts 31 pilot and demonstration projects in the power generation industry outside the U.S

The U.S. is already operating CO₂ pipelines. Transport of CO₂ will not be a big hurdle.

Unlike renewable generation, coal-fired power is always available, particularly during emergencies. Decreasing coal-fired emissions would therefore have a magnified impact compared to replacing fossil generation with intermittent renewable generation. The State CO₂-EOR Deployment Working Group, a collection of public utility commission staff, state energy officials, state-level cabinet secretaries, and other state regulatory staff from 14 states, estimated the cost per ton of CO₂ reductions from various generation and storage technologies and found that CCUS retrofits of existing coal plants was similar in cost to replacing existing fossil fuel plants with wind and retrofitting natural gas combined cycle plants with CCUS. Coal CCUS retrofits were cheaper than several renewable options and only slightly more expensive than maintaining the existing nuclear fleet and replacing coal plants with natural gas combined cycle plants.

This was republished by Heartland Institute in June 2019 and originally appeared in American Liberty. It was written by. Dr. Daniel Britt the Pegasus Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences at the Department of Physics, University of Central Florida. He was educated at the University of Washington and Brown University, receiving a Ph.D. from Brown in 1991. He has served on the science teams of four NASA missions, Mars Pathfinder and Deep Space 1, the New Horizons Mission Science Team for the flyby of the Kuiper Belt asteroid 2014 MU69, and the Lucy Mission Science Team for a series of flybys of asteroids near Jupiter. He was the project manager for the camera on Mars Pathfinder and has built hardware for all the NASA Mars landers. He currently does research on the physical properties and mineralogy of asteroids, comets, the Moon, and Mars under several NASA grants and is the director of the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS), a node of NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI). He has served as the Chair of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society and the Planetary Geology Division of the Geological Society of America. Honors include 6 NASA Achievement Awards, election as a Fellow of the Meteoritical Society, and an asteroid named after him; 4395 Dan Britt. This does not validate him as an expert of global warming, but it does provide a number of claims and statistics, which can be pursued for validation or refutation. It would be hard to argue that he is not a niche expert. It is up to the reader to determine the relevancy of this niche expertise.

“Despite all the scare stories about global warming, we are actually in an Ice Age. We are in a relatively warm period within a much larger incredibly cold period says geologist Dan Britt. In his lecture Orbits and Ice Ages: The History of Climate, he says “reading the rocks” gives us a really good record of climate for the past 500,000 years. And the climate for the latitude of Pensacola, for example, is about the same now as it was in the Mid-Cretaceous period a half billion years ago.

Since then, the average temperature of the earth has been much warmer than today. There were only four periods that were as cold as the present. In short, we are in one of those rare periods in which the earth is about has cold as it ever gets, at least in a half billion years--so why are we worried about global warming? During those four warm periods, each lasting 3000 to 4000 years, nowhere on earth, including the poles, was the average temperature below freezing. Temperate climate extended all the way to the Arctic Circle. Today in the Arctic Circle, fossils can be found of crocodiles, turtles, and breadfruit trees. The temperature must have been quite warm for those species to survive there. The climate where New York City would someday rise was comparable to that of Key West today. But during the extreme cold of the Ice Ages, the ice was a mile thick at the New York city location, and also at the sites of London, Berlin, and Minneapolis.

Carbon dioxide is a natural part of the atmosphere, and it can increase or decrease from natural processes having nothing to do with burning fossil fuels. We have been warned that 400 parts per million (ppm) CO₂ is a “tipping point” for an unavoidable worldwide environmental disaster from global warming due to burning fossil fuels. But pre-industrial CO₂ reached 1700 ppm — six times the pre-industrial level — when there were no factories or automobiles; and the high CO₂ couldn't even melt the glaciers, much less overheat the earth.

What is the “normal” level for CO₂? The earth has seen both higher and lower levels of CO₂. Can anyone say today's level is the optimum or that a higher or lower level would be better? Glaciers are rising. What is the “normal” level for glaciers. Sea level is rising. During the last glacial maximum, sea level was 150 to 200 meters higher than today. Would the average sea level of the past half billion years be the standard for which we should strive? That standard would eliminate Florida; Miami would be under 80 meters of water. There is no “normal” level for CO₂ or for sea level.

What about Antarctica? Is it threatened? Should we be worried? There is no such thing as a “normal” level of glaciation for Antarctica. There was no Antarctic ice until 35 million years ago. Glaciers are triggered by changes in the earth's orbit. Antarctica glaciated, but that did not last. Then 12 million years ago Antarctica re-glaciated, which brought a sharp drop in the earth's temperature, which increased rock weathering. More important, when India collided with China creating the Himalayan plateau, it greatly increased rock weathering, which sucked out 80 percent of the carbon that was in the Cretaceous atmosphere.

Carbon is essential to all animals and plants. If the CO₂ level in the atmosphere is too low, they will be unable to reproduce, and the earth will become a barren planet. That fate was avoided by the invention of agriculture, variously estimated at 8000 to 10,000 years ago. To expand farmland for food, people were cutting and burning bushes and trees — thus putting carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. About 5,000 years ago they also began cultivating rice, and rice paddies also put carbon dioxide (and methane, another greenhouse gas) into the atmosphere.

Volcanoes represent the largest natural input of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Other natural sources include sunspots, ENSO (the southern oscillation of the El Nino ocean current) and CO₂ already in the atmosphere. Britt thinks all of these may have some limited effect but too minor to be more than just “noise” in the background.

Our analysis last week explained that the Drax National Grid-Equinor program in the UK for biomass firing and sequestration provides an opportunistic route for addressing climate change. It pointed out that experts range from discounting fossil fuels as a cause for climate change to those who predict a near term tipping point and doomsday scenario.

The problem is what might be described as doomsday by a wealthy Hawaiian setting up trusts for his grandchildren might be highly desirable for a poor Indian family with no power. The analysis points out that life quality measures as shaped by tribal values and varying discounts of future value vary widely from person to person and country to country.

Japan is a good example. The Fukishima disaster has shaped the outlook of the government and the average citizen. There is a greater worry about a Fukishima repetition than there is about rising sea levels 50 years from now. So, the Japanese policy is to expand coal-fired power generation through 2028. Simultaneously it has an ambitious program to co-fire biomass and a companion program to sequester CO₂. This is accompanied by a program to help operators of coal-fired boilers around the world improve efficiency.

A flexible and opportunistic policy is made possible because Biomass-CCS results in a net reduction of CO₂. As Drax says it “sucks CO₂ out of the air.” A corollary of this ability is that an existing coal-fired power plant, which can be converted to biomass firing and CO₂ sequestration, in the future is the most impactful potential tool in the climate change battle.

Here is how the flexibility can be implemented. The trillion-tree program is pursued. Biomass co-firing is initiated. The amount of biomass co-fired and the amount of CO₂ sequestered depend on future assessments of the impact of fossil fuels on life quality.

The policy can result in a range from modestly lowering coal-fired power plant emissions all the way to reducing the atmospheric CO₂ levels.

Presently fossil fuels are adding 29 billion tons of CO₂ per year to the atmosphere. Coal plants account for 14 million tons. The oceans are absorbing more than they are emitting.

CO₂ Balance in billion tons/yr.
Present	Emitted	Absorbed	Net
Fossil Fuel Emissions Coal-fired Power	14	0	+12
Other Fossil Fuel	15	0
Vegetable and Land	439	450
Oceans	332	338
Sub total	800	788
Future
New Coal Plants	2
Trillion Trees		10
Coal Plant Efficiency Improvements	-2
Biomass Co-Firing	-2
Non-Urgent Sub Total	798	798	0
Total Biomass Firing and Sequestration	-7	7
Ocean Absorption		-6
Doomsday Antidote	791	799	-8

The Opportunistic Biomass-CCS program can continue to discharge 12 billion more tons than absorbed or with the trillion trees and some biomass co-firing reduce the net deficit to 0. If doomsday is envisioned the program can be expanded to maximum biomass combustion and sequestration with the net CO₂ at a negative 8 billion tons per year. So, there is no tipping point and the CO₂ in ppm each year is reduced.

The various biomass co-firing and carbon sequestration programs are continually analyzed in the Utility Upgrade Tracking System.

As discussed in the previous article, Japan is pursuing an Optimistic Biomass-CCS program. In addition to its domestic initiatives, Japan will continue providing new coal-fired power projects in developing countries,

Tokyo’s infrastructure export strategy stipulates that Japan will “in principle, provide aid to install cutting-edge power generation facilities upon requests from countries as long as they are compelled to choose coal as their source of energy.”

The government says it remains committed to coal due to it being a cost-effective power generation solution, and that new technology installed in place of aging, less efficient power stations can help countries reduce their overall emissions.

The government maintains that renewable energy sources remain too unreliable and expensive, despite their wide-scale uptake around the globe and significant, ongoing reductions in their cost.

Japan is one of the world’s leaders in coal power technology. It is also spearheading an effort to commercialize integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) units, which helps to achieve even higher power-generation efficiency through the gasification of coal. These units could ultimately use gasified biomass with sequestration.

According to Japanese estimates, if all the existing coal-fired power plants in Asia and the United States are fitted with ultra-supercritical (USC) technology, global carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by 1.2 billion tons a year, close to the total annual emissions of Japan.

Japan aims to capture and store 100 million tons of carbon dioxide per year from 2020, and a consortium of firms called Japan CCS Co. is finishing a three-year demonstration project involving 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide emitted from an oil refinery in Hokkaido this fiscal year.

The trade ministry estimates there is potential to store 146 billion tons of carbon dioxide in the surrounding waters of Japan.

Japan is aggressively pursuing combustion of biomass. New feed-in tariffs (FITs) make Japan one of the most attractive and promising markets globally. The government’s 2018 strategic energy plan includes a target of 3.7 to 4.6 percent energy from biomass by 2030.

The FIT for biomass power has created a substantial dedicated biomass power project pipeline of 2.8 gigawatts (GW) of capacity (inclusive of plants with capacities greater than 1 MW) to be commissioned in 2020 and beyond, in addition to 1.5 GW dedicated biomass power capacity already operating. Some of these new plants will further drive demand for wood pellets in Japan, which has supply player: Vietnam.

Until the end of 2018, Canada was the predominant supplier of wood pellets into Japan. In 2019, however, Vietnam is likely to have overtaken Canada as the main supplier. This picture is unlikely to change even once the full year data becomes available. Whether Vietnam can hold the new leading position will depend on whether the Japanese government will eventually establish stricter sustainability requirements for wood pellets, which may be challenging for some Vietnamese suppliers.

Palm kernel shells (PKS) are currently used as biomass fuel in many of the FIT-approved power plants. Japan imported more than 1.4 million metric tons (MT) of PKS in 2019. The largest consumers of industrial wood pellets are coal-fired power plants that have started cofiring. There is a total of 16 coal plants (total generation capacity 8.3 GW) cofiring with wood pellets in Japan. There is an additional confirmed project pipeline of three plants (total generation capacity of 1.2 GW) that have announced wood pellet cofiring plans. The number of coal plants that are cofiring with biomass is likely to further increase, as 10 additional plants with a total of 11.6 GW capacity filed for FIT certification but have not yet implemented the fuel change.

After the Great East Japan Earthquake, plans were announced to build approximately 21,000 MW of new coal-fired thermal power plants on the grounds that they were needed to compensate for capacity lost due to nuclear plants being shut down. In the three years since 2017, construction plans for 7030 MW of this capacity have been cancelled or switched to LNG or biomass.

New coal-fired power plant projects currently underway in Japan include 14 units under construction and six units in the pre-construction phase. Maximum electricity demand will decrease by 3.7 percent by 2028 compared to 2018, while coal-fired thermal’s installed capacity will increase by 20 percent. The capacity factor at coal-fired power plants will decline from 73.2 percent to 69.5 percent on average nationwide. Most of the new coal-fired power plants under construction or in the planning stages assume a capacity factor of 80-90 percent.

(1) Akita Port Power Plant Units 1 and 2 Akita Port Power Plant is being planned by Kanden Energy Solution, a subsidiary of Kansai Electric, and Marubeni. Two coal-fired units with ultra-supercritical (USC) facilities will be built with capacity totaling 1300 MW. The new plant will be built on prefectural land at Akita Port for the purpose of supplying electricity from the Tohoku region to the Tokyo metropolitan area in anticipation of market liberalization. However, to transmit power to the Tokyo area will require enhancing interconnectors that connect the power grids of Tohoku Electric Power and Tokyo Electric Power, and in return for obtaining interconnector usage slots the power provider will bear a portion of the enhancement costs. In the initial plan, coal was the only fuel to be used, but mixed combustion with biomass, in which wood chips are burned, and conversion to LNG are now being considered. Unit 1 was scheduled to go online in March 2024 and Unit 2 in June of the same year, but in August 2019, when construction was initially planned to start, it was announced that it was being delayed.

(2) Yokosuka Thermal Power Plant New Units 1 and 2. This facility is being planned by JERA, which has TEPCO Fuel & Power and Chubu Electric Power as an investor and is scheduled to commence operations in 2023 or 2024. An oil- and gas-fired thermal plant that has aged is being upgraded to a coal-fired USC facility with two units and combined capacity of 1,300 MW. It is outside the LNG pipeline network, so major construction would be needed, and this is why, it has been explained, that coal was chosen over LNG. a groundbreaking ceremony was held on August 30, 2019.

(3) Nishiokinoyama Power Plant Units 1 and 2 Yamaguchi Ube Power, whose investors are Ube Industries and Electric Power Development (J-POWER), is planning to build a new plant on a company-owned site next to one of Japan’s largest coal storage facilities, which is owned by Ube Industries. Initially, Osaka Gas was also involved, and the plan was to build two USC coal-fired units with total capacity of 1200 MW, but in April 2019 Osaka Gas announced it was withdrawing from the project. Citing the risk of stronger environmental regulations and lower future electricity sales prices, the company concluded that the project no longer met its own investment criteria. Currently, the environmental impact assessment is being withdrawn and changes being considered that would result in a 600 MW USC unit or a 300 MW integrated coal gasification combined cycle (IGCC) unit. Toshiba and Orix also had plans to build a 1000 MW coal-fired power plant on the same site in 2006, but due to slower electricity demand, rising coal prices, and intensifying climate change, profitability could not be firmly projected, and the plan was abandoned.

GE Supplying Boiler and Fabric Filter for High-efficiency Biomass Power Plant in Japan

GE announced that it will provide its renewable steam technology for the high efficiency Kamisu Biomass Power Generation plant in Japan. In a deal signed with Hitachi Zosen Corp., acting as the project’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor, GE Steam Power will design, manufacture and supply all core components of the power block for the project through an integrated power package including the steam turbine generator as well as the boiler with its air quality control systems.

Located in Kamisu City, Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan, the Kamisu Biomass Power Generation plant will use 100 percent biomass comprised of palm kernel shells and wood pellets to generate 50 megawatts (MW) of reliable and dependable power to the national grid. The plant will be equipped with GE’s low-NO_x circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler, a high-efficiency dust-removal fabric filter and a reheat steam turbine with its generator.

“GE Steam Power’s involvement in the Kamisu Biomass Power Generation project demonstrates our commitment to applying proven steam power technology to lower carbon uses and supporting the use of more renewable fuel sources like biomass,” said Michael Keroulle, CEO of GE Steam Power. “Building on our proven track record of delivering steam power technology and project management capabilities for plants around the world, our integrated offering will help Hitachi Zosen achieve its high efficiency and reliability performance low-carbon objectives.”

After successful implementation of cofiring 10 percent agro-residue based pellets at the Dadri thermal power plant, NTPC is planning to purchase 20,000 tons of agriculture residue per day for its plants spread throughout the country.

Though introduced as a measure of crisis management, the stubble of paddy crop has now become a sustainable alternative for power generation in thermal power plants of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). The public sector company is in the process of purchasing 20,000 tons of agriculture residue per day to make pellets and mix it with natural coal for cofiring.

"The heat value of agriculture residue has been found equal to the coal. Initially, there was a minor decrease in efficiency of the boilers but now it is working properly," said Amit Kulshreshtha, General Manager, Waste to Energy, NTPC in an exclusive interview to Devdiscourse on sidelines of the Waste to Energy Series of Summits (WMSS) 2020 organized in New Delhi on 30-31 January. "We will require to change the design of boilers to increase the ratio of agro-residue based pellets more than 10 percent. However, technologies are available to make bio-coal or biochar from the agriculture residue which is of the same quality as fossil coal. If we adopt the technology, 100 percent replacement of the coal is also possible," added Kulshreshtha.

NTPC is presently using about 10 percent of crop residue-based pellets with 90 percent of coal in its thermal power plant at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. The project was started in 2017 when in pursuance of the direction of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the Central government asked NTPC to purchase paddy stubble from farmers to avoid stubble burning which was causing huge pollution in Delhi and NCR.

NTPC Dadri power plant is presently co-firing 70-80 tons of agro-residue fuel along with coal. The plant has so far received about 2400 tons of non-torrefied biomass pellets from many suppliers in Haryana, Punjab, Rajashtan and Madhya Pradesh. "We are in the process of the tender to purchase 20,000 tonnes of agriculture residue per day for the next year," informed Kulshreshtha. This will be used in various power plants of NTPC throughout the country.

Gypsum Board Market Is Increasing Expeditiously Owing to Rising intake of Product in Residential Real Estate Segment Until 2025

According to new report available with Million Insights, rising demand from the subdivision of residential real estate and growing expending capacity of the consumer for the construction materials are the factors likely to motivate the gypsum board industry.

The global Gypsum Board Market estimated to grow at a CAGR of 11.4 percent and reach $79.17 billion by 2025. Growing intake of the product in the segment of residential real estate is the fundamental reason motivating the development of the industry. The fiscal repossession after the year 2012, together with growing employment and credit rate for housing secured loan is likely to trigger the subdivision of construction in U.S.A. As stated by demographics of the business, demand is likely to be motivated by multifamily homes instead of single-family houses because the duty on student loan is likely to hamper the sales of the single-family houses.

The demand for better-quality substructure amenities in the sectors of commercial and housing owing to speedy industrial development, improved stages of earnings, better-quality standard of living and increasing populace is expected to motivate the demand more. The manufacturing cost of the gypsum board is extremely reliant on the obtainability of raw materials and the cost of the transport. Restricted source of raw material has directed to high price of the finish products. Therefore, a number of companies from Europe and North America are relocating their manufacturing plants to Asia/Pacific.

More than $50 billion per year is being spent on removing SO₂ from the stacks at power plants. The flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems are operating on combustors burning coal, biomass, and waste. Eighty percent of sulfur is being removed by wet scrubber systems using ground limestone. The calcium sulfate is then used in gypsum wall board. About 15 percent of the sulfur and other acid gases are removed in wet or dry lime systems. The remaining 5 percent is captured with sodium, amines, magnesium oxide and some other reagents.

The future of this market is dependent on the climate change initiatives. A program oriented around the acceptance of the doomsday scenario would seem to eliminate all but biomass fired boilers very quickly. However, thanks to technology and logical breakthroughs it now appears that the best way to deal with the problem would be to suck the CO₂ out of the air. A combination of planting a trillion trees and co-firing biomass with CO₂ sequestration would be better than wind or solar. The extent to which biomass is cofired (0-100 percent) and the amount of CO₂ which is sequestered will be part of an opportunistic and flexible strategy which is made possible by technologies addressed in the following news releases:

This strategy affects the selection of FGD systems. The full limestone-gypsum forced oxidation wet system is very capital intensive and is most attractive with high sulfur coals. If biomass is co-fired, the quantity of sulfur is reduced. Limestone is economically attractive if there is a market for gypsum and the plant life will be long. Lime is a better choice if the plant life will be short because it requires a much lower investment in scrubbers. The capital expense for producing gypsum can be eliminated with natural oxidation and chemical fixing of the waste for safe disposal as landfill.

An alternative to natural oxidation wet lime is dry scrubbing with lime injection into a spray dryer or dry reactor. If circulating fluid bed boilers are used for combustion the limestone in the boilers plus the lime in the dry scrubber system remove the acid gases.

The selection of CFB boilers is also dictated by the ease of firing biomass. Here are equipment choices depending on conditions.

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. (MHPS) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Power Generation Joint Stock Corporation 3 (EVNGENCO 3), a power company in Vietnam, to provide operations and maintenance (O&M) support for its power stations, as well as training to boost the technical skills of engineers. The agreement was signed on January 12 in Vietnam.

A ceremony was held in Hoi An (Quang Nam Province), a port city in central Vietnam, with the MOU concluded in the neighboring city of Da Nang. Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc attended the event, with the MOU signed by Dinh Quoc Lam, Chairman of Board, General Director of EVNGENCO 3, and Ken Kawai, MHPS President and CEO.

EVNGENCO 3, one of the power generation subsidiaries of Vietnam Electricity (EVN), was established in 2012. It operates a power generation business with capacity of approximately 6.4 gigawatts (GW), accounting for 12 percent of total generating capacity in Vietnam. MHPS has previously supplied equipment for the company’s Phu My 1 combined cycle gas turbine Power Plant.

Based on the MOU, MHPS will provide training to develop and strengthen the capabilities of Vietnamese operations and maintenance personnel, along with assistance to enhance the performance of boilers and other power generation equipment. The aim is to provide solutions for the power stations, as well as to enhance their sustainability, reliability, and efficiency in order to maximize EVNGENCO 3’s earnings, making a significant contribution to the development of Vietnam’s electric power industry.

Dinh Quoc Lam, Chairman of Board, General Director of EVNGENCO 3 said, “the MOU has extended the good relationship between EVNGENCO 3 and MHPS. We will coordinate to study and develop new technologies in Power Plant’s operation and maintenance.”

Ken Kawai, MHPS President and CEO said: “It is our pleasure EVNGENCO3 and MHPS could sign the MOU today. Basing on this MOU, EVNGENCO3 and MHPS will build the long-term and strategic partnership. We strongly hope to contribute the power generation in Vietnam through this MOU and our technology.”

MHPS, bolstered by the conclusion of this MOU with EVNGENCO 3, will continue to support the stable power supply that is essential to Vietnam’s economic growth, as well as contribute to the conservation of the global environment with carbon-free and low-carbon energy.

The markets for measuring air pollutants in the ambient air and from pollution sources continue to grow as developing nations address their considerable problems. In atypical fashion there has not been the typical consolidation. The market with the broadest definition is over $15 billion per year. The largest supplier is generating sales of less than $300 million in the space.

There was consolidation in the early days. RAC, a small supplier of intermittent particulate sampling systems had a major market share since there were no others and no continuous monitoring. RAC merged with Thermo Electron and started buying a number of growing companies in gas and particulate monitoring. Today Thermo Fisher is the #1 supplier in several categories. They are worldwide with their research all centered in China. But even in the categories where they are #1 their world market share is less than 10 percent and their overall share is less than 1 percent.

Opportunities abound for small and large companies to generate high ROI. For the large companies there is the opportunity to optimize power plant, refinery, cement and other processes with complete cloud-based process management systems. Yokogawa is one company who has demonstrated the potential for success in competition with generalists such as Emerson, ABB, and Rockwell. In Europe the U.S. and now China the profitable operation of a plant depends on optimizing the stack emissions and balancing lower production costs with emission compliance.

For the small companies there are big rewards for supplying instrumentation to meet specific new regulations or to better address existing regulations. Micro sensors are being developed to measure a variety of pollutants in the ambient air. Their cost is as low as 5 percent of a sequential sampling system and does not require continuing service. The potential is to expand ambient monitoring to quantify air quality in more local areas at affordable cost. The accuracy of micro sensors is the key to success.

Smaller companies are developing analyzers which will lead to better regulations. One company has developed a continuous multi metal analyzer. Due to the lack of such a device most regulations lump toxic metals into one category and regulate by total weight. But since cadmium is thousands of times more toxic than manganese, it is highly desirable to measure each and then use a metric which measures all harm and good to determine the acceptability of the emission. This common metric is also needed for process purposes when you can reduce NO_x but increase CO. Is one ton of CO as harmful or more harmful than one ton of NO_x?

One bastion for small entrepreneurs has been the supply of stack sampling services. Travel time costs are a significant factor in regularly extracting stack samples. Montrose Environmental has changed this industry segment with the purchase of many local companies. It has also upgraded the capability to measure difficult pollutants. It has 1300 employees in 60 offices in the U.S., Canada, and Australia and has just received DOE accreditation to analyze per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

The McIlvaine Company has a customized report on the opportunities and the routes to market in this space. For more information contact Bob McIlvaine at 847-784-0013 or email him at rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com.

The U.S. Dept. of Energy said it will make available up to $64 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development projects for technology to be used in new coal-fired power plants.

Labeled by the Energy Dept. as Coal FIRST (an acronym that stands for Flexible, Innovative, Resilient, Small, Transformative), the funding is intended to help develop critical components required by coal-fired systems.

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) will manage the projects, which are being undertaken by the DOE's Office of Fossil Energy’s Transformative Power Generation, Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Technology, Advanced Turbines, Gasification Systems and Carbon Capture research programs.

Pressurized Fluidized Bed Combustor with Supercritical Steam Cycle Power Plant System: Projects will support a system based on pressurized fluidized bed combustion within a supercritical steam power plant that operates at an elevated pressure to enhance combustion with the capability of co-firing with natural gas or biomass. Specific components of interest include projects pertaining to the pressurized post-combustion capture sub-system and integrated energy storage sub-system.

Indirect Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Power Plant System: Projects will support the commercialization of the indirect supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO₂) power plant system, which is intended to deliver compactness, efficiency, modular construction and operational flexibility. This combination has the potential to allow better competitiveness in future energy markets. Specific components of interest include the coal-fired primary heater sub-system, sCO₂ turbine seals and bearings and the integrated energy storage sub-system.

Direct-Fired Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Power Plant System: Projects will support the commercialization of the direct-fired sCO₂ power plant system. Specific components of interest include the syngas oxy-combustor and the sCO₂ turbine.

Gasification-Based Poly-Generation: Projects will support the commercialization of critical components for a gasification-based, poly-generation system, which leverages largely established technology components to design and develop a coal-based, poly-generation system. Specific components of interest include the pre-combustion capture sub-system and the devolatilizer/gasification subsystem.

Coal-Fired Direct Injection Combustion Engine & Gas Turbine Compound Reheat Combined Cycle Power Plant System: Projects will support the commercialization of critical components for a coal-fired direct injection combustion engine and gas turbine compound reheat combined cycle power plant system. Specific components of interest include the micronized refined coal production subsystem and the direct injection combustion engine.

Modular Staged Pressurized Oxy-Combustion Power Plant System: Projects will support the commercialization of critical components for a modular staged pressurized oxy-combustion power plant system, which is intended to be a near-zero emissions source of coal-fired power with high efficiency and flexibility. Specific components of interest include the integrated staged pressurized oxy-combustion subsystem and direct contact coolers.

Flameless Pressurized Oxy-Combustion Power Plant System: Projects will support the commercialization of critical components for a flameless pressurized oxy-combustion (FPO) power plant system. DOE said it seeks R&D to design and test the operability and performance of the integrated FPO system.

There’s a big change in the works at the Belews Creek Steam Station. For the first time in the plant’s 46-year history, it’s running on something beyond coal.

Duke Energy and its subsidiary, Piedmont Natural Gas, are spending more than $150 million to add natural gas for up to 50 percent of the station’s fuel, adding a second way to produce energy. The plant has burned only coal since it opened in 1974.

The station has two 1120-megawatt units, which will soon be operating on this dual system. The plant is also upgrading to all new computers. Six miles of bright yellow pipes have been added to the plant for the natural gas, said project manager Brad Rudolph.

The huge plant is located on Belews Lake, a man-made reservoir created to provide cooling water for the operations at the station, in the southeastern corner of Stokes County. It’s one of Duke Energy’s largest coal-burning power plants in the Carolinas and has consistently ranked among the most efficient coal facilities in the United States.

Duke Energy has worked to improve emissions from the plant, installing emission controls that reduced nitrous oxide by 80 percent in 2004, and four years later installed stack scrubbers that reduced sulfur dioxide by 90 percent. The two taller smokestacks were taken down last year, and the more efficient stacks remain.

Now comes a long-range program to end coal use altogether. In September 2018, the corporation filed plans with state regulators to close the coal part of the Belews Creek plant, and six other coal plants around the state, by 2048.

A nationwide report released by the non-profit Environmental Integrity Project reported that nine in ten coal burning power plants are polluting the groundwater by producing 100 millions of coal ash annually.

“This upgrade will enable 50 percent natural gas co-firing on two units at the site increasing fuel flexibility and lowering carbon emissions,” CEO Lynn Good said. Other sites, in South Carolina and Asheville, that have already become combined cycle natural gas plants are “progressing well, and these projects remain on time and on budget,” Good added.

Belews Creek will be the second dual operations station in North Carolina, after Cliffside plant in Rutherford and Cleveland counties. The plant in Asheville to be the first to go 100 percent natural gas, as the coal-burning operation there is being taken off-line and demolished. The Marshall Steam Plant on Lake Normal will then be converted to the dual system later this year.

Duke Energy began its renewable energy expansion after the Clean Power Plan was adopted in 2015, adding solar and natural gas. Gas burns more quickly in the boilers than coal, so is more efficient in addition to being more environmentally friendly. The plant will be able to nimbly switch back and forth between gas and coal.

There are 168 on staff at Belews Creek, but that number swells to more than a thousand during “outage” periods, when the plant is shut down as a power-producer and vendors of all types come in to do upgrades and maintenance. Outages are usually done in the spring and fall when temperatures are mild and energy demand is way down.

The company is also trying to recycle its by-products; gypsum becomes wallboard for construction, and 93 percent of the coal ash has just the right carbon content to be used in the production of concrete. In 2018, 75 percent of output products were recycled, and it was up to 84 percent in 2019. The rest is put into lined landfills; no coal ash is flowing into the unlined lagoons.

These older coal ash containment ponds are the source of a legal battle right now. The state wants to evacuate what’s being stored on sites like Belews Creek into specially lined and protected landfills, while Duke Energy wants to cap the storage pits in place where they are, a much cheaper option. So far, the courts have agreed with the state, but Duke continues to appeal.

Duke Energy has switched to dry ash storage, slowing draining the water out as it closed the storage basins.

A ruptured pipe at a Duke Energy plant in Eden in early 2014 caused 39 million gallons of coal ash to be leaked into the Dan River, lining the riverbanks for 70 miles. While studies by state officials, North Carolina State University and others show no long-term environmental damage, that disaster did result in criminal charges being filed against the company. It also awoke the local community to the issue. Former Vice President Al Gore and the Rev. William Barber headlined a 2018 protest against Duke Energy practices at Belews Creek.

Natural gas emissions produce 60 percent less carbon than would be released by burning coal to produce the same amount of energy.

“Anytime we are displacing coal with natural gas, we are reducing carbon emissions,” said Gas Co-Firing Project Manager Brad Rudolph. “We are constantly looking at prices and can literally change if we use coal or natural gas day-to-day,”

Duke estimates 99 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions will be reduced. Mercury will be eliminated, and carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced about 40 percent per megawatt-hour.

“Dual fuel optionality also helps us add other renewables, like solar, to the grid since gas generating units can provide energy quickly when the sun isn’t shining. It is more adaptable than coal for such on-demand usage,” Norton said.

India’s Central Pollution Control Board has written to the operators of 15 coal plants giving 15 days to show reason why specified coal units should not be shut down for failing to comply with a December 2019 deadline for the installation of flue gas desulfurization units. Nine of the plants are around New Delhi; the remainder are in southern states. Vedanta was one of the operators given notice and was asked to explain why the three units at the 1980 MW Talwandi Sabo Power plant in Punjab should not be shut down. In December 2015 new pollution standards were announced with a compliance deadline of December 2017, which was extended until between December 2019 and 2022 after lobbying by power utilities. The 15 plants account for about seven percent of India’s coal capacity.

Installing all the technology needed to meet stricter emissions rules coming into force in April could take South African power utility Eskom two decades, its environmental manager told Reuters.

State-owned Eskom, mired in financial crisis and struggling to meet demand, is the top polluter in Africa’s most industrialized economy.

It applied last year for the stricter limits for particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide to be postponed, suspended or adjusted for some of its coal-fired power plants, arguing that compliance wasn’t practically feasible and would cost an exorbitant amount.

That has angered environmental activists, who blame Eskom and other big polluters such as Sasol for causing respiratory diseases.

Deidre Herbst, Eskom’s environmental manager, said in an interview that installing abatement technology like flue gas desulfurization (FGD), low nitrogen oxide burners and fabric filter bags on all Eskom’s coal-fired power plants that won’t be decommissioned before 2030 was a huge undertaking.

“If you told us today that you have to roll out FGD on a plant, it would take us at least 10 years to get to the point where we would be retrofitting the first unit,” Herbst said.

“Being able to execute all of those power stations at the same time would be a significant challenge. You would have to stagger the different power stations and it would probably take at least a 20-year period to finish all of them.”

Eskom estimates the nominal cost of installing abatement technology at power stations that will still be operational after 2030 at 300 billion rand ($21 billion).

Herbst said she expected a response to Eskom’s postponement application in the middle of this year.

The government’s air quality officer has already granted postponements to 37 facilities, including two Sasol plants, environment ministry spokesman Albi Modise said. Eskom previously applied for and was granted postponements between 2014 and 2015.

If the authorities reject Eskom’s latest application and insist that all its coal-fired power plants comply with the new limits on time, the utility could have to take offline 10,000 megawatts, almost a quarter of its nominal capacity, Herbst added.

That could trigger another round of severe nationwide power cuts, energy experts say.

Timothy Lloyd, an attorney at the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), urged the government to dismiss Eskom’s postponement request, saying non-compliance with air quality standards seriously harms people’s health.

The CER has taken the government to court on behalf of two environmental justice organizations in an effort to reduce high levels of air pollution in an area where 12 of Eskom’s coal plants are located.

Duvha power station is a 3600-MW coal-fired power plant located in South Africa. Fully commissioned in 1984, the base load power plant features six units of 600 MW each. South African electrical utility Eskom is the operator of the plant.

Construction of the power station had begun in November 1975 and was completed over eight years with a total investment of R1.6 billion ($128 million). The first two units were commissioned in 1980, followed by the third unit in 1981, fourth in 1982, fifth in 1983, and the sixth unit in February 1984.

Duvha power station is located 15 km east of the city of eMalahleni (formerly Witbank) in Mpumalanga province, South Africa.

Duvha power station is a base-load plant consisting of six units of 600 MW each. Three of the units use electrostatic precipitators with sodium trioxide injection. The remaining three feature ABB Flakt Optipulse pulsejet fabric filters. The three units were retrofitted with pulsejet fabric filters in 1993.

The Optipulse pulsejet fabric filter is divided into four isolatable compartments, each containing 6724 acrylic dralon T bags.

The power plant is equipped with 667MVA generators, which produce 600 MW each at full load. It consists of six cooling towers with a total thermal load capacity of 19,000 GJ/h. Each tower amounts to an evaporation of 30 ml a day at full load.

The Duvha power plant contains six Benson type boilers running as individual entities with separate controls and instrumentation.

Coal is fed to the mills from the boiler bunkers, which is then pulverized by steel balls or rollers in the mills. The coal is supplied by Ingwe, under an agreement signed in 1995.

Each boiler has six mills and can process between 250 t and 300 t of coal an hour at full capacity to generate 507 kg/s of steam.

The highly purified and demineralized feedwater moves uninterrupted through the boiler, turbine, condenser, and back to the boiler in a continuous circuit. The feedwater evaporates in the path and the produced steam gets superheated to a temperature of 540°C and a pressure of 17.1MPa.

The steam bypasses the turbines, flowing into the main condenser. Two electric pumps of 13 MW supply the feedwater to the boilers. Each boiler offers an efficiency of 93.9 percent at maximum continuous rating.

Each boiler-turbine set has a condenser with a heat exchange capacity of approximately 400 MW.

The plant has three control rooms, where the operators can perform functions including start-up, shutdown, normal operations, and emergency operations. The operators communicate with Eskom control centers connected to the integrated transmission network.

The Duvha power station is equipped with original human machine interface (HMI) solution based on Process Portal B/Windows 2000. The system runs on Symphony Plus technology.

The plant is also equipped with Harmon INFI 90 process control system with 17 power conditioning units (PCUs), bridge controllers (BRC100), multi-function processors (MFP), and block inputs/outputs.

The main operating and alarm systems are monitored by a data-logging computer, thus continuously providing information on screens and printers.

The turbines installed at the power plant were manufactured by GEC Turbo-Generators, while ABB manufactured the process control system and ABB Power Tech manufactured the bag filters for the first three units.

The boilers were supplied by SteinMüller (Africa), whereas the electrostatic precipitators were made by Lurgi and the generator transformers were supplied by ASEA Electric.

Earthworks were performed by Grinaker Construction, while civil engineering works were contracted to LTA Construction and steelwork was subcontracted to Dorbyl.

Hamon Sobelco was the contractor for the cooling towers construction, while the contract for chimney one was awarded to Monanhan and Frost and that for chimney two to Murray and Roberts (Transvaal). Huberts Davies performed the cabling works, while Mather and Platt provided the fire control system.

Foster Wheeler was responsible for the water treatment plant, while Satec Hudamec was responsible for the sewage plant.

JL Lining and Construction was contracted for works at the ash conveyor gantry, while Sidima was appointed for the replacement of generator protection and switch gears.

The lignite-fired power station “Kosovo B” near Pristina will be modernized, in cooperation with the Government of Kosovo and under the direction of Engineering Dobersek GmbH, supported by its consortium partners Hamon Thermal Europe S.A., France and RJM Corporation (EC) Ltd., England, trading as RJM International.

This consortium has joined together to deliver the required technical and commercial solutions as set out in the EU tender. The purpose of the contract is to significantly reduce nitrogen oxide emissions (NO_x from around 700-800 mg/Nm³ to less than 200 mg/Nm³ at 6 percent O₂, with SNCR), and dust emissions (from 300-700 mg/Nm³ to 20 mg/Nm³), while improving plant efficiency to recover full load of 339 MWe per boiler, up from around 292 MWe.

References in South East Europe—including projects financed by the World Bank and the EU enable Engineering Dobersek to contribute with its experience to this project in Kosovo.

The consortium leader, Engineering Dobersek (www.dobersek.com ) will coordinate the project and will be responsible for full management of the site, the pneumatic ash handling system including necessary air supply.

Consortium partner Hamon Thermal will design and supply the Electrostatic Precipitator filtration system (ESP). The ESP of Hamon are considered as effective dust collectors with the collection efficiencies of up to 99 percent with guaranteed outlet emissions as low as 20 mg/Nm³ with minimal pressure loss.

Consortium partner RJM International is responsible for designing and engineering the NO_x reduction system, using its combustion modelling capabilities to achieve the 75 percent reduction in NO_x emissions mandated by the EU. RJM’s equipment, such as new burner components, will be supplied to the site by RJM International and installed by Engineering Dobersek.

The reconstruction of the power station will be carried out in two phases. The works commenced on December 2, 2019. The commissioning of Unit B1 is planned for the end of 2020 and Unit B2 by the end of 2021. The modernization works are an important contribution to improving air quality, enhancing environmental protection and the strengthening of the infrastructure of Kosovo.

With this contract, Engineering Dobersek once more confirms its competence in the field of power station technologies in South East Europe.

MHPS Signs MOU with EVNGENCO 3 to Provide O&M Support for Power Plants in Vietnam

Thermax posted consolidated operating revenue of Rs. 1410 crore, down 2 percent as compared to Rs. 1437 crore in the corresponding quarter, last year. Profit after tax (PAT) stood at Rs. 85 crore as compared to Rs. 75 crore (includes the company's share of profit/loss in joint venture) in 3^rd quarter, last year.

The Environment segment of the company has bagged a second large Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) order of Rs. 431 crores during the quarter from a public-private joint venture power company for its thermal power plant in Jharkhand. Order booking for the quarter, at the consolidated level, was at Rs. 1606 crore (Rs. 1,80 crore), up 8.5 percent. As on December 31, 2019, Thermax Group had an order balance of Rs. 5,439 crore (Rs. 6475 crore), down 16 percent.