COAL POWER Direct

This synopsis of today’s most interesting research related to power generation gives you a glimpse of what’s possibly coming to your plant in the not-so-distance future. Research under way today will surely determine how power plants are designed, operated, and maintained for many years to come.

Insulation and lagging are key to saving energy in a typical steam plant, and plant operators would be well advised to pay close attention to energy losses in their insulation and lagging systems.

Supporters of a new carbon tax are using arguments aimed at conservatives (it can be revenue neutral) and liberals (it can help the environment) alike. The damage to the U.S. economy, manufacturing competitiveness, and society’s poorest citizens outweighs the government’s need for a new revenue stream.

Expect the EPA to increase the use NEPA data requests, ostensibly related to climate change analysis, as an excuse to slow or stymie new energy system development.

The world’s first supercritical pulverized coal–fired low mass flux vertical tube Benson boiler is Jinzhushan 3, located in Hunan Province of the People’s Republic of China. The 600-MW Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group Inc. once-through boiler burns Chinese anthracite using downshot pulverized coal (PC) technology. Part 2 of this three-part article discusses the boiler technology. The third and final part will review the plant’s performance test results.

President Obama’s Executive Order on industrial energy efficiency is another incursion of the federal government into the day-to-day operations of American industry. The symbol of a free enterprise is autonomy in determining how to efficiently invest capital, an activity that the government has proven inept time and again.

The American Wind Energy Association’s number one priority is renewal of the production tax credit in order to protect industry jobs. But wind isn’t the only industry sector that’s scrambling to protect jobs.

In a landmark ruling that has been seen as a major victory for thermal generators, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) in August, finding that it violated federal law. The EPA must now continue implementation of the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) until it can promulgate a replacement, which likely will not happen until at least 2014.

Dominion Virginia Power plans to convert its oldest coal-fired power plant, the 227-MW Bremo Power Station near Bremo Bluff, Va., to natural gas, the company announced earlier this month. The two-unit plant would be the ninth in its fleet to be closed or converted to alternative fuels.

Injection of carbon dioxide has begun at one of the world’s first fully integrated coal-fired carbon capture, transportation, and geologic storage projects.