Reassessment of the environmental impacts of sulphur oxide emissions from power stations

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Flue Gas ◽  
Reliable Data ◽  
External Costs ◽  
Power Station ◽  
Sulphur Compounds ◽  
Sulphur Oxide ◽  
Power Stations ◽  
Sulphur Emissions ◽  
Negative Impacts

It is a deeply entrenched belief that emissions of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere are harmful to the environment, and that sulphur compounds should be removed from the gaseous wastes before discharge. The difficulties with this view are summarised. Extensive work in both North America and Europe has failed to demonstrate any of the early claims for impacts such as forest death. The claims for health effects seem unduly conservative and not supported by reliable data. There are even negative impacts from reducing sulphur emissions. Claims for high external costs associated with coal-fired power generation in South Africa are the result of arithmetic errors. The installation of flue-gas desulphurisation on the latest Eskom power station, Kusile, is shown to be completely unsustainable in the light of the minimal benefits that the considerable costs will bring.

scholarly journals Errors Associated With Excess Air Multipoint Measurement Systems

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlene Ramsunkar ◽  
Chris van Tonder ◽  
Walter Schmitz
Keyword(s):  
Flue Gas ◽  
Single Point ◽  
Flow Simulation ◽  
Simulation Software ◽  
Sampling Errors ◽  
Power Station ◽  
Air Content ◽  
Power Stations ◽  
Excess Air ◽  
Duct Geometry

Abstract Boiler combustion air is generally controlled by the excess air content measured at the boiler economiser outlet using oxygen (O2) analysers. Due to duct geometry and dimensions, areas of high and low O2 concentrations in the flue gas duct occur, which poses a problem in obtaining a representative measurement of O2 in the flue gas stream. Multipoint systems as opposed to single point systems are more favourable to achieve representative readings. However, ash blockages and air leakages influence the accuracy of O2 measurement. The design of multipoint system varies across ESKOMs’ Power Stations. This research was aimed at evaluating the accuracy of the multipoint oxygen measurement system installed at Power Station A and to determine the systematic errors associated with different multipoint systems designs installed at Power Stations' A and B. Using flow simulation software, FloEFDTM and Flownex®, studies were conducted on two types of multipoint system designs This study established that significantly large errors, as high as 50%, were noted between the actual and measured flue gas O2. The design of the multipoint system extraction pipes also introduces significant errors, as high as 23%, in the O2 measured. The results indicated that the sampling errors introduced with Power Station A’s system can be significantly reduced by adopting the sampling pipe design installed at Power Station B.

scholarly journals Next-generation, affordable SO2 abatement for coal-fired power generation - A comparison of limestone-based wet flue gas desulphurization and Sulfacid® technologies for Medupi power station

2020 ◽  
Vol 120 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Strickroth ◽  
M. Schumacher ◽  
G.W. Hasse ◽  
I. Kgomo
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Sulphuric Acid ◽  
Flue Gas ◽  
Coal Ash ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Steam Generation ◽  
So2 Emissions ◽  
Process Technology ◽  
Power Station ◽  
Flue Gas Desulphurization

SYNOPSIS Coal is used to generate more than three-quarters of South Africa's electricity, while numerous coal-fired boilers are employed for steam generation in industrial processes. However, coal-fired power generation is responsible for the release of the largest quantities of SO2 emissions to the atmosphere and leads to detrimental health and welfare effects in communities in the proximity of coal-fired plants. The classical industrial SO2 abatement solution for the coal-fired power generation industry is wet flue gas desulphurization, which uses a limestone adsorbent and produces a gypsum by-product (WFGD L/G). In South Africa, due to the poor quality of the limestone the gypsum product is unsaleable and is co-disposed with coal ash. In comparison, the Sulfacid® process technology converts SO2 contained in industrial flue gas into saleable sulphuric acid using a catalytic process requiring only water and air. This process does not require limestone. The scale of the latest commercial applications of the Sulfacid® SO2 abatement technology in the chemical, fertilizer, and copper mining industries demonstrates the potential and readiness of this technology to be employed in the coal-fired electricity and steam production sectors. This paper provides a first-order direct comparison between the techno-economic aspects of the WFGD (L/G) and Sulfacid® technologies using the requirements specified for the 6 x 800 MWe Eskom coal-fired Medupi power station. The results indicate that affordable flue gas desulphurization technology exists that could be adopted by the South African industry to reduce SO2 emissions to legislative limits and beyond. Keywords: SO2 abatement, coal-fired power, and heat generation, sulphuric acid, wet fluidized gas desulphurization, Sulfacid®, waste-to-chemicals.

scholarly journals Development of Flue Gas Desulphurization Reactor for Reducing SOX Emission from Flue Gases Emitted in Thermal Power Plants

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2S4) ◽  
pp. 89-95
Keyword(s):  
Power Plant ◽  
Flue Gas ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Oxides Of Nitrogen ◽  
Power Station ◽  
Contamination Control ◽  
Power Stations ◽  
Oil Gas

Electrical energy produced in any country is one of the development measures takes place in that country. The energy produced is mainly based on the available resources such as flowing water, coal, oil, gas, nuclear fuels, wind, solar etc. The accessibility of bounty coal in India had provoked the power plant organizers to introduce coal based warm power stations. During the pre-autonomy and post-freedom period in mid fifties, the need was to create control and subsequently much consideration was not paid to the contamination angle and this proceeded up to late seventies. The awareness made by contamination impact on the general public and the colossal measure of disintegration exposed to the gear constrained the specialists to make contamination standards increasingly stringent. These convincing standards which appeared in eighties required the power plant faculty to change the contamination control gear in the current power plants introduced during early days. Most of intensity plants in India going from not many MW to 500 MW or more are of pounded fuel terminated boilers using low calorific, low coal sulfur, high debris content sub-bituminous coal. Due to burning of the coal, emissions such as Particulate Matter (PM), Oxides of Sulphur (SOx) and Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) apart from CO2, CO are carried away to the atmosphere through the flue gas. In this paper, the methodology to reduce SOx from flue gas in a coastal power station in is discussed and the optimum methodology adopted is Seawater Flue Gas Desulphurisation (SWFGD) using the alkalinity of the seawater to scrub SO2 from the flue gas. The seawater used in the FGD system is from the once through Condenser outlet of the Turbine system and since there is no by-product to be disposed, the seawater FGD is the optimum SOx reducing mechanism for a coastal thermal power station.

scholarly journals Efficiency and cost modelling of thermal power plants

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 821-834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Péter Bihari ◽  
Gyula Gróf ◽  
Iván Gács
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Electricity Market ◽  
Marginal Cost ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Power Station ◽  
Efficiency Function ◽  
Ic Engine ◽  
Power Stations ◽  
The Cost

The proper characterization of energy suppliers is one of the most important components in the modelling of the supply/demand relations of the electricity market. Power generation capacity i. e. power plants constitute the supply side of the relation in the electricity market. The supply of power stations develops as the power stations attempt to achieve the greatest profit possible with the given prices and other limitations. The cost of operation and the cost of load increment are thus the most important characteristics of their behaviour on the market. In most electricity market models, however, it is not taken into account that the efficiency of a power station also depends on the level of the load, on the type and age of the power plant, and on environmental considerations. The trade in electricity on the free market cannot rely on models where these essential parameters are omitted. Such an incomplete model could lead to a situation where a particular power station would be run either only at its full capacity or else be entirely deactivated depending on the prices prevailing on the free market. The reality is rather that the marginal cost of power generation might also be described by a function using the efficiency function. The derived marginal cost function gives the supply curve of the power station. The load level dependent efficiency function can be used not only for market modelling, but also for determining the pollutant and CO2 emissions of the power station, as well as shedding light on the conditions for successfully entering the market. Based on the measurement data our paper presents mathematical models that might be used for the determination of the load dependent efficiency functions of coal, oil, or gas fuelled power stations (steam turbine, gas turbine, combined cycle) and IC engine based combined heat and power stations. These efficiency functions could also contribute to modelling market conditions and determining the environmental impact of power stations.

scholarly journals A Study on the Improvement of Efficiency by Detection Solar Module Faults in Deteriorated Photovoltaic Power Plants

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 727 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myeong-Hwan Hwang ◽  
Young-Gon Kim ◽  
Hae-Sol Lee ◽  
Young-Dae Kim ◽  
Hyun-Rok Cha
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Detection System ◽  
Failure Detection ◽  
Solar Module ◽  
Thermal Images ◽  
Power Stations ◽  
Photovoltaic Power ◽  
Manufacturing Technologies ◽  
Pv Power Generation

In recent years, photovoltaic (PV) power generation has attracted considerable attention as a new eco-friendly and renewable energy generation technology. With the recent development of semiconductor manufacturing technologies, PV power generation is gradually increasing. In this paper, we analyze the types of defects that form in PV power generation panels and propose a method for enhancing the productivity and efficiency of PV power stations by determining the defects of aging PV modules based on their temperature, power output, and panel images. The method proposed in the paper allows the replacement of individual panels that are experiencing a malfunction, thereby reducing the output loss of solar power generation plants. The aim is to develop a method that enables users to immediately check the type of failures among the six failure types that frequently occur in aging PV panels—namely, hotspot, panel breakage, connector breakage, busbar breakage, panel cell overheating, and diode failure—based on thermal images by using the failure detection system. By comparing the data acquired in the study with the thermal images of a PV power station, efficiency is increased by detecting solar module faults in deteriorated photovoltaic power plants.

The Experimental Research on Corrosion of Gas-Gas Heater (GGH)

2011 ◽  
Vol 356-360 ◽  
pp. 1516-1519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiang Wu ◽  
Jin Hong Zhang ◽  
Wei Feng Xu ◽  
Yu Ran Cai ◽  
Yuan Huang Ouyang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Corrosion Resistance ◽  
Flue Gas ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Control Variable ◽  
Electric Power Industry ◽  
Heat Transfer Surface ◽  
Flue Gas Desulfurization ◽  
Power Stations ◽  
Pollutant Discharge ◽  
Better Than

Along with the rapid development of electric power industry in China, the pollutant discharge limits are getting more strict, and WFGD (wet flue gas desulfurization) technology and its equipment have been greatly developed and extensively applied, in which the gas-gas heater (GGH) is adopted at lots of the power stations. The corrosion is a very important issue in GGH, and it is experimentally studied in this paper. Through experiment of polarization curves and the control variable method, a comparative analysis of the corrosion resistance between the commonly used materials of the GGH is made. The results have shown that the corrosion resistance with the heat transfer surface in GGH will decrease with the temperature increasing, but the enamel steel’s corrosion resistance and stability is strikingly better than that of others, and the increasing volume of corrosion resistance by plating enamel is remarkable.

Influence of flue-gas desulfurization systems on coal combustion by-product quality at kentucky power stations burning high-sulfur coal

1998 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 523-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
James C. Hower ◽  
Uschi M. Graham ◽  
Amy S. Wong ◽  
J.David Robertson ◽  
Bethel O. Haeberlin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Product Quality ◽  
Flue Gas ◽  
Coal Combustion ◽  
Flue Gas Desulfurization ◽  
Power Stations

scholarly journals Modified High Back-Pressure Heating System Integrated with Raw Coal Pre-Drying in Combined Heat and Power Unit

Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heng Chen ◽  
Zhen Qi ◽  
Qiao Chen ◽  
Yunyun Wu ◽  
Gang Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Flue Gas ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
Heating System ◽  
Combined Heat And Power ◽  
Back Pressure ◽  
Coal Consumption ◽  
Heating Capacity ◽  
Boiler Efficiency ◽  
Saving Effect

A conceptual high-back pressure (HBP) heating system cooperating raw coal pre-drying for combined heat and power (CHP) was proposed to improve the performance of the HBP-CHP unit. In the new design, besides of heating the supply-water of the heating network, a portion of the exhaust steam from the turbine is employed to desiccate the raw coal prior to the coal pulverizer, which further recovers the waste heat of the exhaust steam and contributes to raising the overall efficiency of the unit. Thermodynamic and economic analyzes were conducted based on a typical 300 MW coal-fired HBP-CHP unit with the application of the modified configuration. The results showed that the power generation thermal efficiency promotion of the unit reaches 1.7% (absolute value) owing to suggested retrofitting, and meanwhile, the power generation standard coal consumption rate is diminished by 5.8 g/kWh. Due to the raw coal pre-drying, the energy loss of the exhaust flue gas of the boiler is reduced by 19.1% and the boiler efficiency increases from 92.7% to 95.4%. The impacts of the water content of the dried coal and the unit heating capacity on the energy-saving effect of the new concept were also examined.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document