Features

Austin Energy replaced the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst twice over five years for its four peaker turbines. The duct modifications and injection grid redesign, combined with new catalyst, are producing high NOx reduction and low ammonia slip, and the catalyst is now expected to last at least five years.

Gas turbines require clean gas to operate efficiently. Particulate contamination fouls fuel nozzles, causes increases in flue stack emissions, and occasionally causes unplanned plant outages. Now a new real-time natural gas cleanliness monitoring and web-based alarm system is providing valuable protection for natural gas–fired power plants. The adaptation of laser light–scattering technology for the purpose of contaminant measurement in high-pressure gaseous pipelines provides a method of monitoring liquid and solid contamination levels.

Many alternative approaches for determining a useful definition of combined heat and power fossil power plant efficiency have been proposed, although most fail to produce a universal definition. This follow-up report to our February story on plant efficiency shows how an exergy analysis supplies the elusive solution.

Mexico, one of the few countries in Latin America that has resisted the tide of liberalization, retains a monopolistic state player in the electricity market. In treading its own path by maintaining the government’s predominance in the sector, Mexico has an important question to answer: Is this path sustainable?

Mexico enjoys considerable fuel diversity for powering its generating plants, and its goal is to become even more diversified.

Mexico has already developed substantial large hydro and geothermal resources. However, without policy changes and government-sponsored financial incentives, unconventional renewable sources are taking the equivalent of baby steps.

Seven years have passed since the world’s first low mass flux vertical tube once-through furnace was put into operation by Doosan Babcock at the Yaomeng Thermal Power Plant Unit 1 in China. That boiler replaced a boiler of another design that had become unreliable. The operating experience with the Posiflow design has been so positive that the owner has since ordered and commissioned a replacement for Unit 2’s boiler. Here’s what makes this furnace design unique.

Shrinking water supplies will unquestionably constrain the development of future power plants. A hybrid system consisting of concentrated solar thermal power and desalination to produce water for a plant, integrated with a combined cycle or conventional steam plant, may be the simple solution.

In 2006 and 2007, POWER ran a three-part series on the formation of SO₃, O&M issues caused by SO₃, and sorbent injection control for SO₃ control. Three years later, many plants still struggle with their SO ₃ mitigation systems or remain undecided on which mitigation path to follow. This article explores the advantages of dry sorbent injection technology.

Offers of nuclear loan guarantees are pending, construction permit applications are at an industry high, and the political stars seem to be properly aligned. However, there remains one obstacle in the development path of the next-generation of nuclear plants: How will these plants be financed?