Research and Development

  • India’s Coal Future Hinges on Advanced Ultrasupercritical Breakthroughs

    India is striving to conserve coal and slash its carbon emissions. The country which depended on coal for 56% of its total capacity of 356 GW as of May 2019, wants to reduce coal’s share to 45% of a planned capacity expansion to 480 GW by the end of 2022. During that period, it will […]

  • How China Is Improving Coal Technology

    In China, though specific achievements are hard to pinpoint owing in part to a dearth of public or internationally available information, coal technology developments appear to be advancing more rapidly than anywhere in the world. China’s efforts to foster technology advancements are in the country’s national interest, said Mi Shuhua, executive vice president of China […]

  • How the U.S. Is Investing in Advanced Coal Technologies

    The U.S. is investing heavily to ensure its future coal-fired power fleet will be cleaner, more efficient, and more flexible, experts said at the 9th International Conference on Clean Coal Technologies in Houston on June 4. The conference—which is taking place this week in the U.S. for the first time—is spearheaded by the IEA Clean […]

  • Charah Solutions Receives Construction Safety Award from Coalition for Construction Safety

    LOUISVILLE, KY (June 3, 2019) – Charah® Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: CHRA) (the “Company”), a leading provider of environmental and maintenance services to the power generation industry, announced today that it was recognized by the Coalition for Construction Safety (CCS) during their 26th Anniversary and Awards Celebration on April 25, 2019 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Charah Solutions […]

  • POWER Digest [June 2019]

    Ansaldo Leads Research Initiative for Low-NOx High-Hydrogen Retrofit Solution. The Dutch government has awarded six partners—Ansaldo Thomassen, Delft University of Technology, OPRA Turbines, Vattenfall

  • Storing Energy in Salt—Vattenfall Testing Technology at Berlin Plant

    Swedish power company Vattenfall is testing a technology that stores energy in salt, with a goal of proving whether the process would be useful for storage of renewable energy such as from wind and solar

  • The POWER Interview: GE Unleashing a Hydrogen Gas Power Future

    Since the 1940s, when General Electric (GE), launched its gas turbine operations, the company has pioneered and commercialized a lengthy list of gas turbine technologies, large and small. As the decarbonization movement gains pace and more renewables flood the landscape, the company’s gas turbines have taken on new crucial roles to provide dispatchability and flexibility. […]

  • Nuclear Power Needed for Clean Energy Future

    “Without action to provide more support for nuclear power, global efforts to transition to a cleaner energy system will become drastically harder and more costly,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), wrote in his foreword to the IEA’s recently released report titled Nuclear Power in a Clean Energy System. The report […]

  • NuScale, Sargent & Lundy Announce Strategic Relationship

    PORTLAND, Ore. (May 23, 2019) —NuScale Power LLC and Sargent & Lundy today announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a strategic relationship to support deployment of NuScale Plants worldwide. Sargent & Lundy, a global leader in power engineering with more than 60 years of experience in nuclear unit design, will bring its expertise to […]

  • Reduce Water Treatment Costs with Unique Deionization Capacity Monitoring

    Sponsored by:
    Mettler Toledo

    Learn about a proactive approach for predicting when resin exhaustion will occur that offers significant benefits over the traditional elapsed time and totalized flow methods.

  • Industrial Gas Turbine Demand Grows [PODCAST]

    When it comes to gas turbines, size matters. Although the market for large, heavy-duty gas turbines has been challenging in recent years, demand for industrial gas turbines—generally units with output ranging from about 5 MW to 100 MW—has been growing, according to Reed Lengel, product line manager for SCC-800 solutions with Siemens Energy. “When you […]

  • NuScale Power and Enfission Sign MOU to Explore Use of Next Generation Nuclear Fuel Technology

    Agreement could spur new improvements in core design, performance, and levelized electricity cost of NuScale’s small modular reactor PORTLAND, Ore.—Today, NuScale Power and Enfission, LLC, a joint venture of Lightbridge Corporation (NASDAQ: LTBR) and Framatome, announced a memorandum of understanding to explore the use of next generation nuclear fuel technology in NuScale’s small modular reactors. […]

  • Protect Your Power Plant from Organics with Rapid, Reliable TOC Measurement

    Sponsored by:
    Mettler Toledo

    Organic contamination in cogeneration water cycles is capable of causing process disruptions and catastrophic damage to expensive capital equipment. Key to confirming and troubleshooting organics removal is reliable on-line total organic carbon (TOC) measurement. Check out what If organics are in your cogen process water?

  • EIA: Gas, Renewables Outpacing Coal for Power Generation

    The percentage of coal-fired generation in the U.S. electricity mix will continue to decline, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said May 9, with gas-fired generation accounting for at least 40% of the nation’s power this summer and output from renewables continuing to rise. EIA’s latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) said coal-fired units will produce only […]

  • EMP Threat Real but Limited, EPRI Says in Much-Anticipated Report

    Depending on the hazard field, electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) resulting from detonation of a nuclear weapon at high altitude or in space could cause significant damage to electronics on the bulk power system and even prompt a regional voltage collapse, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) says in much-anticipated findings from its three-year study on high-altitude […]

  • Q&A With Geothermal Experts

    Geothermal energy has been around forever, used as a heating source across the world. Today it has surfaced as another renewable resource, with advancements in drilling technology bringing down costs and opening new areas to development. In conjunction with the feature article on geothermal in the May 2019 issue of POWER, we sought opinions from […]

  • High-Volume Hydrogen Gas Turbines Take Shape

    In preparation for a large-scale power sector shift toward decarbonization, several major power equipment manufacturers are developing gas turbines that can operate on a high-hydrogen-volume fuel. According to

  • Advancements in Water Ultrafiltration Technology

    Strained water resources across the world necessitate innovative ways for power plants to more efficiently use, and reuse, the water that is available. At the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National

  • Bringing the Heat: Geothermal Making Inroads as Baseload Power

    It’s energy that has been around forever, used for years as a heating source across the world, particularly in areas with volcanic activity. Today, geothermal has surfaced as another renewable resource, with

  • A Thorium Molten Salt Reactor When and Where You Need It

    ThorConIsle is an offshore 500-MWe thorium molten salt reactor constructed inside a ship’s hull, ready to provide power from navigable waterways. The ThorCon “pot” operates at a pressure of 3 bar gauge

  • React immediately to chloride and sulfate excursions to prevent corrosion

    Sponsored by:
    Mettler Toledo

    Check out how US major electricity and natural gas provider in the US Midwest detected ppb-level chloride and sulfateions accurately in their cycle chemistry and avoided plant shoutdown. Start monitoring your water-steam on-line and react quickly to any excursions.

  • GE Marks ‘Ultra Low’ NOx Gas Turbine Technology Triumph

    In a significant technical triumph, GE has completed first installation of a new gas-fired power plant technology that it says can reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions to 5 parts per million (ppm).  GE on April 11 completed combustion upgrades on nine GE 9E gas turbines at five power generation enterprises in Shenzen, a major industrial […]

  • Northeast Hydro Think Tank Teams Compete – May 20-23

    Niskayuna, NY – The Northeast Hydro Think Tank sponsors–GE Renewable Energy, Brookfield Renewable, New York Power Authority and the Hydropower Foundation–are pleased to announce that the competition begins May 20. The sponsors believe that hydro industry real-world problems can be tackled by the next generation of leaders through education and hands-on experience. This intense four […]

  • GreenFire Energy Completes Construction of the First Field-Scale Demonstration of Closed-Loop Geothermal Power Generation

    Testing of the Demonstration Begins at the Coso, California, Geothermal Field  Emeryville, California – April 16, 2019 – GreenFire Energy Inc. today announced the completion of construction and the beginning of testing of the world’s first field-scale demonstration of a closed-loop geothermal power system. The project uses an inactive well in the Coso, California, geothermal […]

  • Vogtle 2 Installs World’s First Full Accident-Tolerant Fuel Assemblies

    The world’s first complete advanced nuclear fuel test assemblies containing accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) have been installed at Southern Co.’s Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant’s Unit 2 in Georgia.  Nuclear giant Framatome delivered four GAIA lead fuel assemblies containing enhanced ATF (EATF), including both pellets and cladding, to the plant owned by Georgia Power in […]

  • Framatome delivers GAIA fuel assemblies containing the first complete Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel concept

    Framatome delivered the industry’s first full-length Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel (EATF) concept containing both pellets and claddings to Georgia Power’s Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant. Southern Nuclear, operator of Plant Vogtle, inserted the GAIA lead fuel assemblies containing EATF during the Unit 2 spring refueling outage. Framatome delivered the fuel to the plant in […]

  • Inside NET Power: Gas Power Goes Supercritical 

    A project to demonstrate a novel power cycle that promises to produce low-cost, reliable, and flexible power from natural gas—while generating no atmospheric emissions, and fully capturing carbon dioxide—is inching closer to commissioning. Its developers are now actively assessing siting for the first commercial-scale 300-MW NET Power facility. NET Power’s 50 MWth Demonstration Plant in La […]

  • What Are Supercritical CO2 Power Cycles?

    While conventional power plant cycles produce power from turbines using water or steam as the working fluid, supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) cycles use CO2 that is in a supercritical state—at a temperature and pressure above its critical point where liquid and gas phases are not distinguishable.  CO2 has a relatively low critical pressure of 7.4 megapascal […]

  • Flexible Operation of Nuclear Power Plants Ramps Up

    A widespread misconception persists that nuclear plants can only function as inflexible baseload sources of power—and it’s hurting prospects for the nuclear sector’s role in the world’s future power

  • Optimizing Kaplan Turbine Efficiency with Minimal Cost, Effort, and Time

    When the blades of individual Kaplan turbines are not continuously adjusted to achieve peak efficiency, the result is non-optimal performance and unnecessarily high mortality of downstream migrating fish