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Many of today’s advanced steam generators favor either an all-volatile treatment or oxygenated treatment chemistry program, both of which require strict maintenance of an ultra-pure boiler feedwater or condensate system. Those requirements are many times at odds with the lower-quality water sources, such as graywater, available for plant makeup and cooling water. Adding a condensate polisher can be a simple, cost-effective solution.

A familiar argument against building new nuclear power plants in the U.S. is that there’s no long-term solution to the used nuclear fuel storage problem. This situation was created in 1977 with the indefinite suspension of programs to reprocess commercial used nuclear fuel. The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership’s announcement in February 2006 that it was reconsidering the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel represented a major shift in policy. It may even open the door to building new U.S. nuclear plants.

Over time, turbine compressors and other driven compressors suffer from corrosion, oxidation, and, in many cases, severe fouling, which in turn can cause in-service breakdown and premature overhaul. Today’s innovative protective coatings can be applied on-site to rotors and individual components to replicate the surface finish, corrosion resistance, and antifouling properties of new components.

British Columbia began collecting increased tax revenue on fossil fuels on July 1 with a promise to rebate those taxes through reduced income and business tax rates. This "revenue recycling" plan makes little progress toward the province’s goal to reduce CO2 emissions 33% by 2020, yet it is hailed by proponents as a legislative milestone. Others believe B.C. residents are victims of another governmental "bait and switch" program. Does it matter to the rest of the world?

Steve Elonka began chronicling the exploits of Marmaduke Surfaceblow—a six-foot-four marine engineer with a steel brush mustache and a foghorn voice—in POWER in 1948, when he raised the wooden mast of the SS Asia Sun with the help of two cobras and a case of Sandpaper Gin. Marmy’s simple solutions to seemingly intractable plant problems remain timeless. This Classic Marmaduke story, originally published more than 40 years ago, illustrates that finesse often overcomes brute strength when solving delicate construction problems.

Opponents of massive new energy taxes and regulations breathed a small sigh of relief in June when the Lieberman-Warner climate-tax bill went down in flames on the Senate floor. Even 10 Democrats broke with the party and voted against it, writing that they would have opposed the bill on final passage. Unfortunately, power-mad bureaucrats at […]

By Dr. Robert Peltier, PE
The fallout from the Supreme Court’s April 2, 2007, decision (Massachusetts v. Duke Energy) in which the high court ruled that the EPA does have the right to regulate CO₂ emissions as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act (CAA) continues. The court also ruled that the EPA has the authority to regulate carbon emissions from automobiles and other vehicles—and, by extension, power plants (my words, not the court’s).

Selective catalytic reduction systems were introduced as a means of reducing the nitrogen oxide emissions of power generators in the 1980s. Since then, environmental issues have increased in importance, as has the value of an SCR reactor. Unfortunately, because this technology is still so new, not all users understand its full potential and proper maintenance techniques.

Emissions of SO₃ (or its hydrated form, H₂SO₄) have created a nagging problem for some coal-fired power generators after they’ve installed a selective catalytic reduction system. If your plant is in that unfortunate group, here’s a summary of  the state of our understanding of the problem—and its solutions.

Measuring the level of flyash in your silos is not an easy task, in part because the flyash collected at one plant can be remarkably different from that collected at another plant, even if both fire the same coal. Such variability means that selecting the right instrument for your application is important.