Creeped out and fatigued—that’s the state of many coal-fired boilers these days. Understanding failure mechanisms and suitable testing methods for identifying potential trouble can help you find problems before the problems find you. Even as the current regulatory environment pushes new power generation to utilize natural gas over other fuel sources, a significant amount of […]

See if you can fill in the blanks: “A debate has been created after a paper was published in the BLANK Journal, suggesting the new BLANK Guidelines… are biased and based on an incomplete survey of current studies.” That quote from Digital Journal, referring to the British Medical Journal and the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, could […]

Coal dust combustion events injured employees and damaged equipment at Laramie River Station in May 2013. Any dust-filled facility could consider implementing some of the plant’s corrective actions to reduce the risk of experiencing a similar incident. When Laramie River Station (LRS), near Wheatland, Wyo., was built nearly 35 years ago, it was state-of-the-art. Constructed […]

Once again, a first-of-a-kind technology at a coal-fired power plant that is designed to reduce its greenhouse gas footprint has run into design, operational, and cost problems. This time, it’s Saskatchewan, Canada utility SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Carbon Capture project that’s facing scrutiny. (Earlier this week, an overdue precombustion carbon capture project, Mississippi Power’s Kemper County […]

Will rooftop solar photovoltaics be the most economical way to deploy today’s hottest new generating technology, or will central utility solar PV systems be the best economic bet? Is there a third way? The answer appears to be “yes.” Solar photovoltaic (PV) power has emerged as the hottest new trend in renewable energy generation, primarily […]

The ETH spin-off company Climeworks AG has announced plans to construct and operate an industrial scale CO2 capture plant to be operational by mid-2016. The Oct. 21 announcement said the plant in Hinwil (Canton of Zurich, Switzerland) “has the capacity to capture 900 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere per year.” For comparison, The Carbon […]

In a media briefing this morning on the Clean Power Plan, Janet McCabe, acting assistant administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Office of Air and Radiation made no announcement of major changes but did note that the final rule will be published in the Federal Register tomorrow, Friday, October 23. That publication starts the […]

Alberta-based Carbon Engineering is inaugurating a pilot project today in Squamish, British Columbia, that will capture carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere. The company, funded by private investors, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and oil sands financier Murray Edwards, has developed technology based on research conducted by Harvard University–based Professor David Keith’s research groups […]

By now, power industry watchers are familiar with how U.S. interests are reacting to the Environmental Protection Agency’s final release on August 3 of the Clean Power Plan. But what about the rest of the world—especially Europe, which has long been seen as taking a stronger stand on greenhouse gas emissions? Some key European officials […]

Owner/operator: TNB Janamanjung Sdn. Bhd. Ultrasupercritical technology is the current gold standard for coal-fired plants, but Malaysian national utility Tenaga Nasional Berhad had some unique requirements for its newest, most efficient plant. With a client lacking an indigenous source of coal and needing wide fuel flexibility, Alstom delivered a state-of-the-art plant that can handle an […]