POWER

Biomass energy has been an up-and-down industry for decades. As public awareness grows, it inevitably influences new tax legislation and environmental regulations. Two recent events have made the climate for development of this renewable resource even more volatile.

EPRI recently issued a handbook on nuclear spent fuel storage that examines regulatory trends affecting used fuel storage, describes available dry storage technologies, reviews planning considerations for spent fuel storage installations, and discusses technical issues affecting dry storage.

Part of a family of automated and semi-automated tube-cleaning accessories, the new Saflex 2000 makes tube bundle cleaning more productive because it can clean four times as many tubes in a given period as manual water jetting, says NLB Corp. Operating at pressures up to 40,000 psi, the semi-automated accessory cleans two tubes (ranging from […]

The Chemical Safety Board (CSB)—an independent federal agency charged with investigating serious chemical accidents such as equipment failure, as well as inadequacies in regulations, industry standards, and safety management systems—recently released multiple reports that should be made part of every power plant’s safety training program.

Engineers and technicians searching for a high-performance oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) sensing solution will find that the S10 and S17 ORP Sensors from Electro-Chemical Devices (ECD) feature a no-glass design with platinum or gold sensor tips to operate safely in a wide range of applications. ECD’s ORP S10 and S17 Sensors come with easily replaceable ORP […]

The CSB has made urgent recommendations to the NFPA and the International Code Council to prohibit indoor purging and require companies and installers to purge flammable fuel gases to safe locations outdoors, away from workers and ignition sources.

The new QC#1 MT Pre-Cleaner from Martin Engineering is a high-quality cleaning blade for use on vulcanized conveyor belts. It features a special polyurethane blend and tungsten carbide tip to deliver service life two to three times longer than conventional urethane blades, the company claims. Designed to provide excellent cleaning performance without any break-in period, […]

In the heart of corn country, Archer Daniels Midland is using seed corn that is no longer suitable for planting, along with coal, to power its 180-MW Clinton cogeneration plant. The cogeneration plant, which began operations in 2008, supports ADM’s Clinton corn processing plant, one of the largest corn wet mills in the world. It also supports ADM’s facility that produces renewable plastic from corn sugar. Firing up to 20% biomass along with coal, the new cogeneration plant is capable of providing 100% of the steam and electrical power needs of both facilities.

Power plant operators must keep the corrosion, deposition, and microbiological fouling affecting cooling water systems at bay to avoid damage to equipment and system inefficiencies. One possible solution is GE’s newly released TrueSense, a technology platform that enables users to monitor and control cooling water systems. TrueSense integrates three functionalities into one platform: online monitoring […]

Constellation Energy Constellation Energy recently completed a series of air quality upgrades on both units at its Brandon Shores Generating Station that included flue gas desulfurization (FGD), baghouse, SO₃ control, and mercury reduction by activated carbon injection. The plant’s unique arrangement required long duct runs to the air quality system and a mile-long conveyor for moving barge-delivered limestone to the plant. Treated municipal wastewater was used as wet FGD supply water, and effluent treatment included first-of-its-kind nitrogen removal before discharge to the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

E.H. Wachs introduced the EP424 Speed Prep Autofeed System, an inside diameter–mount end prep machine tool designed to bevel, compound bevel, J-prep, face, and counterbore pipe, fittings, and valves. With the Speed Prep, the user sets the bevel angle and land thickness that works best. The machine feeds simultaneously in the axial and radial planes […]

The 1,456-MW Brunner Island coal-fired plant has implemented advanced environmental improvements in order to be a good neighbor to the residents of south central Pennsylvania. For example, between 2006 and 2010, PPL invested more than $860 million in pollution control upgrades for air, water, and solid waste treatment at the facility.

Ergodyne’s new Arsenal 5725 Safety Bolt Bag is designed to safely store tools, fasteners, and equipment at any vertigo-inducing job site. Featuring a loop design and wide-body, one-handed cinch top, this safety bolt bag increases aerial job safety and productivity by keeping loose gear securely stored in a durable canvas pouch. The bag has a […]

Owner/operator: Mirant Corp. Dickerson Generating Station, a 50-year-old facility servicing Maryland and Washington, D.C., was recently upgraded with a flue gas desulfurization system and a unique draft system that allows an electrostatic precipitator and a baghouse to share flue gas cleanup chores on each unit. In addition, state-of-the-art equipment monitoring and diagnostics keep plant reliability high for this baseload unit.

LUDECA launched the ROTALIGN Ultra Live Trend, a short-term continuous-monitoring application that helps to accurately determine the relative positional changes between coupled machines during run-up or shutdown. It utilizes the unique ROTALIGN five-axis sensor to monitor continuously, in real time and simultaneously, both the vertical and horizontal parallel and angular displacement of rotating machinery, from cold […]

A recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report examines two key options for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from coal-fired power plants. The first is horribly expensive and will be years in the making. The second is blocked by current regulations in the U.S. The GAO report “Opportunities Exist for DOE to Provide Better Information […]

Unit 2 at J-POWER’s Isogo Thermal Power Station entered commercial service in July 2009. The 600-MW ultrasupercritical unit joins an earlier, similar plant built in 2002. Together, these two new plants replaced 1960s-vintage coal-fired plants and doubled power generation from the small project site. In addition, the new unit improves the plant’s gross thermal efficiency to about 45% while reducing air emissions to those of a gas-fired combined-cycle plant.

Thirty-six years after work first began at the 1,600-acre site housing the Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant in Hollywood, Ala., the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in August said it plans to invest $248 million to maintain the option to complete the 1,260-MW Unit 1 reactor. The announcement was made as the nation’s largest publically owned utility […]

Adding two 615-MW supercritical pulverized coal units to the 1,135-MW Oak Creek Power Plant is part of We Energies’ ongoing master plan to “Power the Future” of Wisconsin well into the 21st century. The new Elm Road Unit 1 went into service in February, and Unit 2 is expected to start operations during the fourth quarter of 2010. With operations marked by high efficiency and low emissions, these new units will provide large amounts of cleaner energy to the Great Lakes area.

Australian company Horizon Power opened the country’s first hybrid solar-diesel power station in August near Marble Bar, and it is readying another for operation in the neighboring town of Nullagine, Western Australia—a region infamous for extremely hot temperatures. The power stations are the first “high penetration, hybrid solar-diesel systems” in the world, claims Horizon, adding […]

Located in a semi-arid region, this “Texas tough” coal-fired power plant uses a number of smart practices to increase water-use efficiency. For example, a pipeline was constructed to send blowdown water from nearby Plant X for treatment and recycling at the 1,080-MW Tolk Station, making both plants “zero-discharge” facilities. For its environmental stewardship and superior plant operations, the Powder River Coal Users’ Group named Tolk Station its 2010 Plant of the Year.

Much opposition to large-scale renewable projects concerns aesthetics. U.S. federal regulators, for example, ordered the developer of the $1 billion Cape Wind project—a 468-MW offshore wind farm proposed to be built in a 25-square-mile section of Nantucket Sound off the Massachusetts coast—to change the design and configuration of the project to reduce “visual impacts.” Among […]

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Researchers at the University of Leeds in the UK and the Chinese Academy of Sciences say they may have found a solution to dealing with short-lived power demand spikes—and it could be more environmentally friendly and halve the fuel needed when compared with gas-fired generation. Noting that gas-fired generators typically used to feed peaking demand […]

The air preheater is a critical, yet often overlooked, component of the boiler combustion air system. Evaluating and optimizing a heater’s performance is difficult given how entwined it is with the entire combustion system and the lack of standardized calculation tools. Reducing leakage by using modern seal technology will improve combustion efficiency, maintain fan performance, and keep your downstream air quality control equipment operating within spec.

UK firms unveiled two innovative offshore turbines in July and August—one to reap the wind’s energy and the other, tidal power. Wind Power Ltd. made public the latest embodiment of its Aerogenerator project, a lighter 10-MW design, while Atlantis Resources Corp. unveiled and then deployed its mammoth AK1000 tidal turbine, which it says is the […]

In Part I of this two-part report we examined the various chemical forces at work in condenser tube leaks, the steam plant components placed at risk, and the suite of instrumentation most capable of providing early warning of a leak. Assuming you were able to repair the leak and quickly resume operation, the next step is to identify the damage mechanisms that caused the problem so you can minimize future leaks.

India in August began building two 700-MW indigenous nuclear power reactors at Rawatbhatta, in the desert state of Rajasthan. The two pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs), which will use uranium as fuel and heavy water as both moderator and coolant, are the largest to be built by the central government–run Nuclear Power Corp. of India […]

As a boiler fuel, biomass has shown great promise while suffering from a slow development history. One factor limiting its use has been the combustion system. For the most part, conventional grate-fired boilers have been the only option. Today, the most efficient approach to burning biomass to produce electricity and steam is fluidized bed combustion (FBC). Whether you choose FBC or grate, biomass presents unique challenges to control system designers.

News items of interest to power industry professionals.