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At least 37 records · Page 2

Enabling The Next Generation of Smart Sensors in Coal Fired Power Plants using Cellular 5G Technology

Ohio University (OHIO), West Virginia University (WVU), and American Electric Power (AEP) proposed to study and report on the benefits of 5G wireless cellular technologies for coal-fired power plants. The significant advantages, cost savings, and potential of 5G wireless data communications based sensors promised to usher in a new era of reliable, inexpensive, and powerful embedded systems that had not previously been available for coal-fired power plants. The team built upon existing experience with cellular-based systems, power plant water quality sensing, and high temperature sensors developed during past projects. Principal Investigator Wilhelm had been developing cellular-based sensor data systems with a commercial partner for 10 years, pioneering innovative solar-powered devices that began with 2G technology. The lessons and knowledge gained served as a foundation to demonstrate innovations and potential impacts specific to coal fired power plants enabled by 5G technology, along with integration with existing sensors and systems.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

Pilot testing of CO2 capture from a coal-fired power plant—Part 2: Results from 1-MWe pilot tests

Abstract Using a 1-MWe slipstream pilot plant, solid-sorbent-based post-combustion CO2 capture was tested at a coal-fired power plant. Results from pilot testing were used to develop a preliminary full-scale commercial design. The sorbent selected for pilot-scale evaluation during this project consisted of an ion-exchange resin that incorporated amines covalently bonded to the substrate. A unique temperature-swing-absorption (TSA) process was developed that incorporated a three-stage fluidized-bed adsorber integrated with a single-stage fluidized-bed regenerator. Overall, following start-up and commissioning challenges that are often associated with first-of-a-kind pilots, the pilot plant operated as designed and expected, with a few key exceptions. The two primary exceptions were associated with: (i) handling characteristics of the sorbent, which were sufficiently different at operating temperature than at ambient temperature when design specifications were established with lab-scale testing; and (ii) CO2 adsorption in the transport line between the regenerator and adsorber that preloaded the sorbent with CO2 prior to entering the adsorber. Results from the pilot programme demonstrate that solid-sorbent-based post-combustion capture can be utilized to achieve 90% CO2 capture from coal-fired power plants.

Sjostrom, Sharon↗

Investigation of Cycling Coal-Fired Power Plants Using High-Fidelity Models

The project delivers a well-integrated and validated simulation platform for cycling operation analysis in coal-fired power plant. Two critical mechanical components of the boiler island were analyzed through mechanical integrity assessment and economic benefit analysis. The current phase of the project focuses on the development of the integrated simulation infrastructure and prove its feasibility and effectiveness using two typical use cases. This integrated platform can help save a lot of engineering efforts for model development and simulation analysis. Through the real simulation scenarios in this document, it was demonstrated that using this platform, an analysis can be completed in approximately 2 days, while it could cost several weeks before using this platform. Going forward, the platform built in this project can be used for more boiler service applications, and it can be further enhanced with more functions/features to maximize its usage and benefits. 1) Extend component-level analysis with more use cases to cover all the major critical components of boiler island under cycling operations. A library of critical components can be developed and validated for typical pulverized coal-fired subcritical boiler units. 2) Develop predictive maintenance features based on the integrated models (Digital Twins) and engineering analysis procedures. Predictive maintenance enables each asset to be serviced based on forecast on life consumption and cost profile for replacing/welding the critical mechanical parts of the boiler. This minimizes the chance of unscheduled shutdowns and emergency services at much higher costs and prevent the fatal accidents in unit operations. 3) Develop and maintain a standard library for critical component analysis under flexible plant operations, which will include libraries of: process models, MI models for typical pressure parts, and economic models with typical plant operating data and ISO power trade data.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

5G integrated edge computing platform for efficient component monitoring in coal-fired power plants

This project developed a cutting-edge 5G-integrated edge computing framework to enhance operational efficiency and reliability in coal-fired power plants through real-time component monitoring and anomaly detection. The initiative focused on leveraging distributed machine learning, federated learning, and 5G-based dynamic network slicing to support scalable, fault-tolerant monitoring environments to meet the operational requirements in industrial control systems. With a Distributed Edge Computing Service (DECS) orchestration, this project enabled federated learning at edge for condition monitoring and introduced adaptive client selection strategies to minimize communication overhead. Scalable distributed training was achieved using the Horovod framework, thus enhancing performance across edge nodes. In the realm of 5G networking, the project designed and deployed reconfigurable, QoS-aware network slicing tailored for operational technology (OT) environments, integrating software-defined networks to bolster cyber-resilience and enabling dynamic slicing for federated learning workloads. A significant milestone was the development of a virtualized ICS environment with 5G core integration—which allowed elastic and fault tolerant distributed training on real-world datasets such as NASA Bearings, Hydraulic Systems, and TEP. To broaden the impact of the project, a TRL-3 virtualized ICS testbed for research and education was designed. This project engaged several graduate and undergraduate students to conduct research on the cutting-edge technology, and it resulted in one PhD dissertation, one MS thesis, and over 14 peer-reviewed publications. With the support of this project students also participated in national cybersecurity competitions to improve their professional development skills.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

Ultrasonic Measurements of Temperature Profile and Heat Fluxes in Coal-Fired Power Plants (Final Report)

Many industrial processes are inaccessible or inhospitable to characterization by traditional temperature measurement methods, such as thermocouples, especially over prolonged exposure to harsh environments. Ultrasound is an established characterization technology with diverse applications ranging from medical imaging to therapies to flaw detection to nondestructive evaluation. Ultrasound may characterize solid materials and components noninvasively as a nondestructive evaluation modality and obtain internal measurements of material properties. For example, the speed of ultrasound propagation changes with Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio, which can be found from its measurements. Traditional ultrasonic characterization assumes all material properties remain constant with the position. When this assumption holds, a property of interest may be measured by relating it to the speed of ultrasound propagation (or a speed of sound, SOS) and measuring the SOS by timing the ultrasound propagation through a known distance. However, when a property of interest is spatially distributed, the propagation time depends on the SOS changing with the position along the ultrasound propagation path. The multiple temperature distributions may lead to an identical time of flight (TOF). Temperature is one property that impacts the speed of ultrasound and often cannot be assumed to remain constant with the position. Previously, in the context of temperature, we addressed the challenge of ultrasonic characterization of spatially distributed properties by developing a method for measuring segmental temperature distributions (MSTD). This method divides the ultrasonic propagation into segments bound by echogenic features. These features provide ultrasonic interfaces where some energy is reflected toward the receiving transducer, and the rest continues through the medium. The time-of-flight between the echoes reflected from echogenic features characterizes the spatial distribution in the properties of interest in the corresponding segment of the ultrasonic propagation path. This project demonstrated the application of the MSTD method in industrial conditions of the coal-fired power plant. We implemented the MSTD using metals and alloys waveguides, which may be the existing structure for which the temperature distribution is characterized or purposefully designed waveguides added to the structure by welding or other means specifically to quantify thermal properties using the MSTD method. Previous iterations of the MSTD method used ceramic and cementitious waveguides, which significantly attenuate ultrasound. On the other hand, low attenuation in metallic waveguides creates interactions between echogenic features which compilates the signal analysis in the segmental TOF measurements. We have established the WG design principles that minimize the interferences between trailing and primary echoes and, in some cases, eliminate them. The waveguides in which echoes do not interfere improve the timing accuracy and the robustness of ultrasonic measurements of the spatial distributions in material properties. Our emphasis remained on the estimation of the temperature distributions. We have developed general recommendations for designing ultrasonically segmented waveguides with the reduced influence of trailing echoes. Two of our waveguide designs were tested in the industry. The first waveguide was designed for insertion into a combustion zone of the utility-scale coal-fired power plant boiler. The second design allows the characterization of temperature distribution in the direction normal to the boiler’s water wall, a large heat exchanger converting the chemical energy released during combustion to the steam driving the electrical power generation turbines. These waveguides were designed to operate within a restrictive space of thermally insulated water wall and incorporate densely located echogenic features while combatting the influence of trailing echoes. The project has successfully demonstrated the feasibility of using the developed method for accurate, continuous, and robust temperature measurements in extreme environments of power generation and other industrial processes. It, therefore, has achieved its overarching goal of advancing the technology readiness level of the novel Ultrasound Measurements of Segmental Temperature Distribution (US-MSTD) method for real-time measurements of the temperature distribution and heat fluxes closer to commercial availability, developing a prototype multipoint measurement system, and validating its performance on coal-fired utility boilers. The success of this project was achieved in collaboration with the power generator, Rocky Mountain Power, and set the stage for the transfer of this technology from the laboratory to the industry.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

Long term predictions of coal fired power plant data using evolved recurrent neural networks

Abstract This work presents an investigation into the ability of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) to provide long term predictions of time series data generated by coal fired power plants. While there are numerous studies which have used artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict coal plant parameters, to the authors’ knowledge these have almost entirely been restricted to predicting values at the next time step, and not farther into the future. Using a novel neuro-evolution strategy called Evolutionary eXploration of Augmenting Memory Models (EXAMM), we evolved RNNs with advanced memory cells to predict per-minute plant parameters and per-hour boiler parameters up to 8 hours into the future. These data sets were challenging prediction tasks as they involve spiking behavior in the parameters being predicted. While the evolved RNNs were able to successfully predict the spikes in the hourly data they did not perform very well in accurately predicting their severity. The per-minute data proved even more challenging as medium range predictions miscalculated the beginning and ending of spikes, and longer range predictions reverted to long term trends and ignored the spikes entirely. We hope this initial study will motivate further study into this highly challenging prediction problem. The use of fuel properties data generated by a new Coal Tracker Optimization (CTO) program was also investigated and this work shows that their use improved predictive ability of the evolved RNNs.

Automation & Control Systems↗

Transient Efficiency Flexibility and Reliability Optimization of Coal-Fired Power Plants: Model-Predictive Control Library Development (Report)

This document pertains to the reporting requirements of DOE contract FE-0031767. The document covers the development of a model predictive control (MPC) library for implementing MPC for a general dynamic system. The library is implemented in a standardized manner in Matlab/Simulink, where core functions on model prediction, linearization and formulation and solution of a quadratic programming (QP) optimization problem is done in the core library - independent of the specific application. The user can provide the application-specific dynamic model in continuous and discrete time, to rapidly implement and test the MPC performance in a desktop simulation. The MPC optimization objective and constraints are also easily configured via an Excel file to allow iterative refinement as needed. Finally, the MPC library enables a rapid deployment to a target environment through auto C-code generation and containerization. The MPC library works seamlessly with the model based estimation (MBE) library to obtain the overall output feedback control solution. In this program, the reduced order model (ROM) of a coal-fired power plant (CFPP) is used to implement and test the MPC solution.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

‘Best’ Coal-Fired Power Plant and Cogeneration Case Studies

This National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) work was prepared for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Energy Working Group. As many economies are planning for a lower carbon future, the use of inefficient coal-fired power generation remains significant in many parts of the world. In 2018, 45% of power generation in APEC economies came from coal. The transition to a lower carbon future can be aided by employing the most advanced available technologies in existing and future coal-fired power plants. Higher efficiency translates to lower emissions per unit of power produced and also means less carbon to capture once CO 2 capture technologies are fully commercial and widely deployed. In addition to reducing carbon emissions, the most advanced coal plants also have extremely low emissions of other pollutants like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and particulate matter. Some of these advanced plants also address regional water constraints by minimizing the use of fresh water.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

FINAL TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY STUDY ON THE APPLICATION OF A HEAT INTEGRATED POST-COMBUSTION CO2 CAPTURE SYSTEM WITH HITACHI ADVANCED SOLVENT INTO EXISTING COAL-FIRED POWER PLANT

This report contains the results of a techno-economic assessment (TEA) conducted of a heat integrated post-combustion CO2 capture process with Hitachi advanced solvent for retrofit into an existing coal-fired power plant (but treated as greenfield plant on cost analysis). The process has been developed by the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy (UK CAER). EPRI was chiefly responsible for this analysis, with significant input from WorleyParsons, Hitachi Power Systems America (Hitachi) and UK CAER. The project also involves the design, fabrication, installation, testing, and analyses of a slipstream facility located at L&GE-KU’s E.W. Brown Generating Station to demonstrate the UK CAER carbon capture system that could utilize heat integration with the main power plant. The design, start-up, and baseline of the pilot system was performed with a generic 30 wt% MEA solvent to obtain data for direct comparison with the DOE/NETL Reference Case followed by testing Hitachi’s proprietary solvent H3-1. In this techno-economic analysis, two cases utilizing the UK CAER process are compared, using different approach temperatures and solvent, against the DOE/NETL Reference Case (Case 10). The results are shown comparing the energy demand for post-combustion CO2 capture and the net higher heating value (HHV) efficiency of the power plant integrated with the post-combustion capture (PCC) plant. A levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) assessment was performed showing the costs of the options presented in the study. The key factors contributing to the reduction of LCOE were identified as CO2 partial pressure increase at the flue gas inlet, thermal integration of the process, and performance of the Hitachi H3-1 solvent. Recent UK CAER process pilot-scale testing data and process simualtion data showed that the packing heights of absorber and stripper columns were significantly oversized in the prelimanary TEA (Task 2 of this project) and thus updated in this final TEA for the H3-1 case only. In addition, the solvent make-up cost for H3-1 was updated based on lattest test results. Finally, a heat integration with the main power plant was applied in this final TEA to increase overall energy effciency for both the MEA and H3-1 cases. Additonal reductions in capital and operational costs are expected but not taken into account here. Shorter columns result in reduced pressure drops, smaller blower head and pump hydraulic head requirements. An increase in overall energy efficiency resuls in a decreased size of the power plant, the CCS and a reduced parasitic steam requirement to the CCS. The net efficiency of the UK CAER integrated PC power plant with CO2 capture changes from 26.2% for the Reference Case 10 plant in 2010 revised DOE/NETL baseline report to 27.6% for the MEA options considered, and 29.1% for the options utilizing the Hitachi advanced solvent. The UK CAER Process + Hitachi case also produces an extra 30.9 MW of generation compared to the UK CAER Process + MEA case and total 60.9 MW more than DOE Case 10. LCOE ($/MWh) values are $172.08/MWh for the MEA option and $157.65/MWh for the Hitachi H3-1 solvent cases considered in comparison to $189.59/MWh in January 2012 dollar for the Reference Case 10. The UK CAER CCS process with MEA case lowers energy consumption for CO2 capture to 1340 Btu/lb-CO2 captured as compared to 1540 Btu/lb-CO2 in the Reference Case 10. The UK CAER CCS process with H3-1 case further lowers energy consumption for CO2 capture to 973 Btu/lb-CO2 captured, for an advantage of 36.8% less energy consumption than Case 10. The study also shows 38.1% less heat rejection associated with the carbon capture system from 3398 MBtu/hr (Case 10) to 2104 MBtu/hr for the UK CAER + MEA system. Heat rejection is reduced to 2464 MBtu/hr in the UK CAER + H3-1 case, for a 27.5 % decrease compared to Case 10. Modeling outputs show that in the UK CAER process, the cooling water that is 2-5°C cooler than conventional cooling tower water can be achieved for ambient conditions common to the midwest and other regions. The results from the techno-economic assessment show that the proposed technology can be investigated further as a viable alternative to conventional CO2 capture technology. The evaluation also shows the effect of the critical parameters on the LCOE, with the main variables being the approach temperature and CO2 partial pressure increase at the flue gas inlet. A summary of the key advantages of the UK CAER Process + H3-1 case for LCOE and other economic factors compared to the DOE Case 10 is as follows: • A lower variable operating cost by $1.56/MWh ($1.08MWh less than the UK CAER Process + MEA Case), a 11.7% reduction compared to the DOE Case 10 • A lower COE by $25.32MWh ($13.94/MWh lower than the UK CAER Process + MEA Case), a 16.9% reduction compared to the DOE Case 10 • A lower LCOE by $31.94/MWh ($17.51/MWh lower than the UK CAER Process + MEA Case), a 16.9% reduction compared to the DOE Case 10 • A lower cost of CO2 captured by $18.65/tonne CO2 ($9.44/tonne CO2 lower than the UK CAER Process + MEA Case), a 30.4% reduction compared to the DOE Case 10 • A lower cost of CO2 avoided by $34.95/tonne CO2 ($18.53 tonne CO2 lower than the UK CAER Process + MEA Case), a 38.7% reduction compared to the DOE Case 10

Bhown, Abhoyjit S.↗

Energy Efficient Waste Heat Coupled Forward Osmosis for Effluent Water Management at Coal-Fired Power Plants

This project sought to evaluate the technical and economic viability of the Aquapod©, a transformational low energy (<200 kJ/kg water) waste heat coupled forward osmosis (FO) technology, to manage effluents, meet cooling water demands, and achieve water conservation in a coal-fired power plant environment. The Aquapod© process is innovative because it is heat-driven, avoids the evaporation of water, and uses no toxic chemicals such as ammonia or amines. The Aquapod© process accomplishes this using an aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) coupled FO process. The evaluation revealed that the Aquapod© process offers a pathway to exploit waste heat resources within a power plant to achieve flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewater volume reduction and water recovery with minimal pretreatment. Water recovery of 80% from FGD wastewater was achieved with minimal pretreatment, exceeding the project target of 50%. The estimated electrical energy of 2.16 kWh/m 3 of water produced for the Aquapod© process met the project target of < 3.6 kWh/m 3 . The heat required for the process operation was approximately 186 kJ/kg of produced water, which was slightly lower than the project target of 200 kJ/kg. The estimated treatment cost for installing and operating the Aquapod© process in conjunction with a spray dryer evaporator to achieve zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) of the 100 gpm FGD wastewater was $13.24/m 3 over a 30-year lifetime. As a point of reference, this study’s host power plant currently incurs a cost of $3.70/m 3 – $8.87/m3 on a discharged volume basis to discharge its wastewater into the publicly owned treatment works (POTW) after physical-chemical treatment. Therefore, the Illinois power plant would incur an incremental cost increase of $4.37/m 3 – 9.54/m 3 to achieve ZLD using the Aquapod© and spray dryer combination. Ample opportunities exist to further lower the ZLD capital and operating costs in the next design iteration to attain pipe parity at the higher end of the site treatment costs.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

Deep Analysis Net with Causal Embedding for Coal-fired Power Plant Fault Detection and Diagnosis (DANCE4CFDD)

Fault detection and diagnosis is critical to power plant operation to ensure attaining high reliability while reducing operation cost. As more renewable power is introduced to the power grid, traditional fossil power plants take on the extra burden of excessive load cycling to compensate the generation variability from renewable power. Such load cycling will pose more reliability challenges to power plant operation. There are a number of challenges faced by today’s asset health management system in coal- fired (or gas) power plants: 1) high-dimensional nonlinear interaction among multiple time series measurements; 2) high measurement variance induced by operational conditions/modes; 3) variation among asset types and plant configurations; and 4) a small number of faulty events to learn from. To cope with these challenges, today’s fielded asset health management systems rely heavily on manual efforts from domain experts and hand-crafted features or rules based on domain knowledge. Despite its role in plant reliability, such a practice is costly and hinders its scalability and sustainability, particularly when a plant undergoes modifications. The objective of this project is to develop a novel end-to-end AI learning system that is trainable (i.e., the AI representation of a complex system behavior can be directly learned from properly labeled data) for accurate fault detection and root cause analysis. The ability to create a fault detection model directly from time series could alleviate the efforts associated with today’s asset management solution development. In the course of this project, we have achieved the following: Created an AI model development environment incorporating state-of-the-art neural network architectures for rapid model development and evaluation; Developed novel learning strategies for training of fault detection model; Developed special-purpose neural network architecture embedded with variable association graph aiming for better interpretability; Developed a learning strategy to leverage a small number of faulty events for enhanced fault detection capability; Conducted detailed experimental study based on public benchmark datasets and demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed solution; and Validated the developed system with data from both a coal-fired plant boiler dynamic simulation model and real-world coal-fired power plant covering multiple asset and fault types. Overall, the project attained a technology readiness level of TRL 5 from TRL 2 at the beginning of the project.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

A combined biological and chemical flue gas utilization system towards carbon dioxide capture from coal-fired power plants (Final Report)

Photosynthetic algal cultivation has been intensively studied for CO 2 capture and utilization for several decades. The footprint for using algae to capture CO 2 emitted from carbon-intensive industrial processes (power plants, cement plants, and fermentation processes) is extremely large, which creates serious technical and economic hurdles that must be cleared if algal technologies are to be commercially implemented. Fortunately, algal biomass is rich in proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids, providing a good chemical source for organic absorbents and other value-added chemical feedstocks. In particular, amino acids from algal protein can be used to generate amino acid salt solutions that have been proven to be effective for capturing CO 2 . In order to take advantage of both algal cultivation and biomass utilization, the goal of the proposed project is to develop a combined biological and chemical system for coal-fired power plants for sequestering CO 2 in biological absorbents and generating value-added products. This approach significantly reduces the land and energy footprint of CO 2 capture, and minimizes capital and operational expenses. Three specific objectives are targeted: 1) optimizing the growth of the selected algal strain to maximize biomass accumulation from the coal-fired flue gas; 2) developing a cascade biomass utilization to produce amino acid absorbents, polyurethanes, biodiesel, and methane; and 3) conducting techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) of the proposed process. Three key technical outcomes were achieved: (1) With the selected robust algal strain and unique photobioreactor design, long-term culture stability can be extended, and algal biomass productivity reached 0.5 g dry biomass/L/day year-round at a biomass concentration of 1.2 g/L in the pilot photobioreactor; (2) The biomass utilization process led to complete utilization of the algal biomass to produce amino acid salt absorbent, polyurethanes, and methane; and (3) The combined biological and chemical flue gas utilization process concluded a technically and economically feasible commercial-scale system that completely captures CO 2 in coal-fired flue gas with greatly reduced energy consumption.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

Dynamic Modeling and Simulation of a Subcritical Coal-Fired Power Plant under Load-Following Conditions

Dynamic models for power plants that capture realistic general process trends and effects of manipulated variables are needed to improve load-following, while minimizing carbon footprint. In this work, a dynamic modeling approach and simulation results for subcritical coal-fired power plant components are presented. These encompass simulation of the dynamics in the fireside, including the effects of fuel, air combustion, and the dynamics of the entire waterside and power generation sections. This model development enables the simulation and analysis of the important short and long-time scale dynamics of components such as heaters, evaporative loop, and power generation units. Furthermore, additional variables in the power generation section are introduced to improve model accuracy, extending the prediction capability of subcritical power plant models and opening new opportunities for research in operator training, optimization, and advanced model-based controller design that are based on these models. The change in process gain for different ramp rates associated with disturbance signals that affect process variables is also explored and a correlation developed. This provides opportunities to study disturbance rejection control implementation and adaptation for scenarios with such variations in ramp rates. The prediction capabilities of selected components are compared to data available in literature, with the obtained root mean squared error ranges that reflect the model performance and quality of predictions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

CO 2 Pipeline Analysis for Existing Coal-Fired Power Plants

Previous studies have examined the needs for CO 2 transport and storage to achieve a net zero emissions economy by 2050 (Abramson and Christensen, 2021; Greig and Pascale, 2021; Chen and Pawar, 2023). This analysis examines the minimum CO 2 pipeline infrastructure necessary to transport and store CO 2 captured from coal-fired power plants. This analysis also examines an additional network configuration considering minimizing the number of state border crossings, reflecting non-economic considerations that may impact pipeline buildout.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

Cost and Performance Baseline for Fossil Energy Plants Supplement: Sensitivity to CO 2 Capture Rate In Coal-Fired Power Plants

The cost and performance of various plants designed to meet a range of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emission limits are evaluated in this report by varying the CO 2 capture rate. The base cases for these designs are the supercritical (SC) pulverized coal (PC) plant and the General Electric Power (GEP) integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant from the Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) report “Cost and Performance Baseline for Fossil Energy Plants, Volume 1: Bituminous Coal and Natural Gas to Electricity, Revision 4” (“Bituminous Baseline”).

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

Slipstream Testing of Amine-Based Solvents at a Low-Rank Coal-Fired Power Plant

Conference presentation for 38th Annual International Pittsburgh Coal Conference, Virtual, September 20–23, 2021. To better assess mitigation strategies for aerosol reduction to extend solvent life, the University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) installed a pilot-scale CO 2 absorption system at a lignite-fired plant in central North Dakota. The pilot-scale system was operated using both commercial KS-1™ solvent and advanced KS-21™ solvent provided by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI). MHI’s proprietary amine emission reduction unit (AERU™) technology was installed downstream of the absorber columns to reduce solvent losses by recovering amines at the system outlet. Fine particulate loading was measured throughout the capture system with and without a WESP operating and using both solvents. Captured particulate was brought back to the EERC to be analyzed for chemical composition and to be examined by scanning electron microscopy for particulate structure. These variables were then correlated to performance of particulate control devices in reducing aerosol formation and solvent losses.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗