Plant Design

Many coal-fired power stations built before 1980 were designed for handling relatively easy-handling lump coal. If your plant’s bins, bunkers, and silos aren’t up to dealing with today’s range of more variable coal properties, this case study shows one way to minimize coal flow problems.

The 200-MW Dallman Unit 4 under construction in Springfield, Ill., is expected to cost approximately 20% less to operate per megawatt-hour than the most efficient of the three existing Dallman units. A composite stack liner is one element enabling that cost savings.

The flue gas desulfurization process requires the use of aggressive liquids that significantly shorten the life of typical construction materials such as metals and concrete. That makes fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) the material of choice for many components in a typical flue gas desulfurization (FGD) system.

Replacing existing, older-generation controlled-flow split-flame burners on Unit 1 at the Seminole Generating Station with Foster Wheeler’s new low-NO_x burners and overfire air additions reduced NO_x emissions. This case study provides all the details and post-installation test results.

Many automation engineers are coming face to face with real fieldbus applications for the first time. Fieldbus (the use of digital communications networks for distributed instrumentation and control) is a wonderful technology with many benefits, but fieldbus installation requires some additional considerations over and above normal 4-20 mA projects. In this article, I present some of those issues and show you how to deal with them.

Reducing NO_x, SO₂, and other air pollutants continues to be a challenge for the power generation industry. The technologies are well-understood, but the devil is always in the details, especially when a complex treatment system is retrofitted to an existing plant.

The most common method for reducing SO₂ from plant emissions is the conventional lime- and limestone-based flue gas desulfurization (FGD) system. Material-handling systems for limestone and gypsum present specific challenges and opportunities that differ from those of coal-handling systems. This article looks at factors to consider  before and during the design of a new material-handling system. The choices you make about these many variables will determine the cost and longevity of your system.

In early June, New York Gov. David Paterson proclaimed that his state would commit $6 million to buttress a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) viability study for the development of a new 50-MW clean coal plant in Jamestown, in western New York. The circulating fluidized-bed (CFB) project, which would use pure oxygen to combust coal and subsequently capture and sequester 90% of emitted carbon dioxide (CO₂), would be “the first of its kind in the world” and could potentially enable New York firms to launch exports of the technology worldwide, Paterson promised.

In recent years, Sargent & Lundy has evaluated many potential sites for new coal-fueled generation. Some of the sites studied were lands adjacent to existing power plants (brownfield sites); others were undeveloped greenfield sites. The numerous technical, environmental, economic, and regulatory issues that bear on power plant siting generally apply to both brownfield and greenfield […]

Production from Wyoming Powder River Basin (PRB) coal mines ended last year with a increase of only about 1.1%, reflecting a record 451.3 million tons, according to the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration. Production of PRB coal spiked with a record 10% growth in 2006 following two derailments on the PRB’s main triple-track line […]

The FutureGen Industrial Alliance Inc. selected Mattoon, Ill., as the site of the $1.8 billion FutureGen project just before Christmas, but the plant may never move off the drawing board.. FutureGen, the proposed prototype of a near-zero-emissions coal plant, is to demonstrate advanced technologies for coal gasification, electricity production, emissions control, CO 2 capture and […]