POWER

Organic compounds can enter the steam cycle from a number of sources, including water treatment chemicals, or as part of a manufacturing process. Regardless of the source of the organics, their effects range from fouling polisher resins to causing significant steam turbine damage. Conventional water pretreatment systems are available to remove organics from water, but removing organic compounds at their source is the best place to start addressing the problem.

Obtaining accurate data about the performance of a plant’s heat-recovery steam generator is crucial to ensuring the smooth operation and maintenance of the equipment. Software designed to model and simulate HRSG operations can provide valuable information about corrosion and other operational problems.

Despite being located on the beautiful Hawaiian island of Oahu, the Kalaeloa Cogeneration Plant had trouble in paradise: Large amounts of ash from #6 low-sulfur fuel oil coated the finned tubes of its heat-recovery steam generators (HRSGs). The fouling added an extra $5 million dollars a year to the plant’s fuel bill. By retrofitting the HRSG with new panels and improved fin design, the plant overcame the fouling problems, stopped tube leaks, and cut fuel costs.

Carbon capture and sequestration is very likely to be a key element of any future greenhouse gas legislation. Integrated gasification combined-cycle plants now under design have provisions to separate the CO₂ at elevated pressures. Coal-fired plants have a far more difficult and expensive task — separating and compressing CO₂ from pressures just above atmospheric conditions.

When roving Contributing Editor Mark Axford attended several recent energy conferences, he found the same questions asked at each one about new U.S. generation sources and consumption patterns. Unfortunately, the experts had few good answers to those questions.

The new Duo-Spring secondary tensioner developed by ASGCO Complete Conveyor Solutions utilizes a patent-pending mounting plate that allows the cleaning blade to be spring tensioned in either a pull-up or push-up position. This specially designed configurability features two different mounting options that leave extra clearance above or below the bracket where necessary. The Duo-Spring secondary […]

The latest addition to Yokogawa Corp. of America’s temperature controller product line is the UTAdvanced Hybrid Controller, a device that combines Yokogawa’s proportional integral derivative (PID) control with a new, standard embedded ladder sequence control. The new controller supports 84 ladder commands, 24 DIO points, four analog inputs, three analog outputs and allows up to […]

The U.S. may have created the roadmap for the next generation of nuclear reactors, but other countries are farther down the road to development. The U.S. Department of Energy initiated the Generation IV Roadmap development project in January 2000. Soon, nine other countries joined, including some of the largest commercial nuclear powers, such as France, […]

AMETEK Solidstate Controls Inc. (SCI) introduced SAGE, a remote uninterruptible power supply (UPS) monitoring system that connects seamlessly with AMETEK SCI’s UPS line of products (both Ferro and PWM). With SAGE, all of the alarms and notifications from a UPS can be accessed remotely. SAGE also works in combination with SCI’s CellRx battery monitoring system, […]

South Korea is gearing up to install the world’s longest distribution voltage superconductor cable system near Seoul by mid-2010. This April, the nation’s largest power cable manufacturer, LS Cable, ordered about 50 miles of 344 superconductors — American Superconductor Corp.’s (AMSC) second-generation high-temperature superconductor (HTS) wire. It plans to strand that wire into a 22.9-kV […]

Garlock Sealing Technologies developed a new ultra-low-emission, high-temperature valve stem spool packing designed to simplify leak detection and repair of volatile organic compound and hazardous air pollutant emissions. Delivering emissions performance of <20 parts per million average leakage, the Garlock Style 212-ULE comes in an easy-to-use recyclable dispenser with color-coded instructions. The number of typical […]

Construction of the world’s first nuclear power plant to use U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric’s AP1000 reactor technology commenced this April in China, with the pouring of 5,200 cubic meters of concrete at the nuclear island at Sanmen in Zhejiang province (Figure 3). The two-unit Sanmen plant will be built in three phases, with the first reactor […]

Exaktime’s ClockPoint Kiosk is new software that lets office staff clock in using a single PC running Windows XP or Vista in the same way as field workers would clock in using the JobClock System, Exatime’s time and attendance system designed for use in the field. The system includes portable devices (JobClock and PocketClock/GPS) that […]

By Kennedy Maize Remember the nuclear power renaissance coming any day soon now? Fugetaboudit. While the stars seemed aligned for new nuclear power in the U.S. in 2005 when Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, it’s all turned brown and runny. The promise of some $15 billion in loan guarantees for new nukes in the […]

Demonstrating sound knowledge, having profound passion, and being consistent with your message are essential when trying to persuade someone to adopt your point of view. A recent press briefing hosted by a well-known pro-coal industry group failed on all counts.

New coal-fired power plant ash management regulations appear to be inevitable, perhaps as soon as year-end. The Tennessee Valley Authority and Edison Electric Institute are on board with new regulations, as long as the ash is regulated as a nonhazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

The UK has all but doomed new coal-fired capacity by simultaneously setting binding carbon reduction goals and by requiring carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) of carbon emissions from new  mid-size coal-fired power plants. Existing plants will also be required to retrofit their plants when CCS technology is demonstrated, now estimated to happen by 2020.

Utilities generally support a cap-and-trade approach to reducing carbon emissions—but only when the objective of any legislation is to promote cost-effective reductions. The least-cost alternative for consumers requires free distribution of all carbon allowances.

FirstEnergy has announced plans to repower two coal-fired units at the R.E. Burger plant to burn biomass. Conversion of the two units, expected to be completed by 2012, gets the utility off the hot seat with the EPA for alleged Clean Air Act violations.

Recent improvements in the performance of steam power plants have been achieved with advanced computerized controls. These new control schemes not only reduce fuel consumption and make the plant much more responsive, but they also can significantly decrease start-up commissioning time and cost.

Commonly, 20% of the cement (by weight) in a concrete mix is replaced by fly ash. Fly ash enhances the workability, durability, and ultimate strength of concrete at a lower cost than cement. However, mercury sorbents can change the ash properties to make it unsuitable as a concrete additive. New “concrete-friendly” sorbents can keep the revenues from ash sales flowing.

Measuring combustion airflow in a coal-fired power plant can be problematic when using annubar instruments that feature small holes that can easily plug with coal dust. Sierra Instruments eliminates this big maintenance headache with its more-accurate, nonplugging thermal mass flow meter design.

Industry experts say raw uranium will face increased demand, reduced supply, and higher prices. Will the market bear out those predictions?

Could demand from plug-in hybrid cars crash the grid? A DOE national lab addresses the issue.

Working for Uncle Sam can be worthwhile or a life-sapping grind, depending on which agency employs you, according to a new survey by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Guess which agency ranked best. (Hint: It’s related to power.)

What role will coal play as the nation moves toward trying to reduce greenhouse gases? The picture is mixed, as these news stories from around the country demonstrate.

Climate change legislation, despite its environmental focus, will raise vast sums of money. The Washington turf wars over how to spend the money will dwarf the skirmishes we’ve seen so far.

Did a recent Supreme Court decision give a license to firms to use “best practices” concepts to gut effective environmental standards?

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in early April granted Entergy Nuclear an extended license for the Oyster Creek nuclear plant in New Jersey, the oldest operating nuke in the U.S. The plant will now be able to operate until 2029, unless the NRC at some point in the future grants a further license extension. Nuclear power advocate William Tucker, with tongue in cheek, advocated closing the plant and other elderly units in the Northeast, in a commentary in the National Review. Tucker’s comments are reprinted with permission.

Does customer satisfaction play a meaningful role in guiding utility operations? Many utilities think it does, as do many regulators. The market apparently doesn’t. Data suggest that the jury is out on the question, and the intuitive answer may not match the empirical evidence.