Power generation pollution control

Thermal energy, power generation, and incineration have several factors in common. All rely on combustion, which causes the release of air pollutants all exhaust their emissions at elevated temperatures and all produce large quantities of ash when they consume solid or residual fuels. The ratio of the energy used to control pollution to the gross energy produced can be a deciding factor in the selection of the control system. These processes have important differences which influence the selection of specific systems and devices for individual facilities. 

Selection and insteillation of an integrated air pollution control system do not end the concern of the utility industry. Maintenance and operational problems of the system are considered by many engineers to be the weak link in the chain of power generation equipment (6). The reliability of the... 

Facilities for separating steam from brine and for power generation were designed by mechanical, chemical, and electrical engineers. Dissolved salts in the brine cause severe scaling and corrosion in wells and pipelines. Chemists and chemical engineers developed new production techniques to overcome these problems, as well as pollution control technology for the operation. 

When hydrogen is burned in a combustion chamber instead of a conventional boiler, high-pressure superheated steam can be generated and fed directly into a turbine. This could cut the capital cost of a power plant by one half. While hydrogen is burned, there is essentially no pollution. Expensive pollution control systems, which can be almost one third of the capital costs of conventional fossil fuel power plants are not required. This should also allow plants to be located closer to residential and commercial loads, reducing power transmission costs and line losses. 

Approximately one-half of the reverse osmosis systems currently installed are desalinating brackish or seawater. Another 40 % are producing ultrapure water for the electronics, pharmaceutical, and power generation industries. The remainder are used in small niche applications such as pollution control and food processing. A review of reverse osmosis applications has been done by Williams et al. [52],... 

The hot combustion gases rise to enter the boiler, producing superheated steam. Each incinerator has its own boiler, and they both feed steam to the same turbine generator. It produces 14 MW of power, yielding 100 million kilowatt hours each year under normal operations. The power plant includes a full pollution control system, with flue gas desulfurization, thermal de-NOx, and a fabric filter baghouse. 

In conclusion, whole-tire-to-energy power plants with a reciprocating grate system and state-of-the-art air pollution controls have proven practical, both in the U.S. and West Germany. With the completion of the Sterling plant, there will be the capacity in the U.S. to turn 14 million tires per year into electricity. It must be emphasized that two keys to successful operation of such plants are proximity to tire sources and adequate buy-back rates for the electricity generated by the plants. 

Sometimes the opposite is also the case, that is, the boiler itself restricts the type of flue gas treatment system that can be installed. Most electric power generating facilities have coal specifications required by the boiler design and the manufacturer s warranty. These sulfur and ash specifications are designed to optimize boiler performance and avoid fatigue of boiler materials. Boiler design and coal specifications can limit the type of system that can be applied. The construction date of a boiler determines the level of pollutant control required, and it also goes far toward determining the type of flue gas treatment system that can achieve this level of emissions control. 

Alloy 601 is used in thermal, chemical processing, pollution control and power generation... 

The job of designing power generation equipment usually falls to mechanical engineers, but the analysis of combustion reactions and reactors and the abatement and control of environmental pollution caused by combustion products like CO, CO2, and SO2 are problems with which chemical engineers are heavily involved. In Chapter 14, for example, we present a case study involving the generation of electricity from the combustion of coal and removal of SO2 (a pollutant) from combustion products. 

There are other secondary agreements covering lease or sale of land, finance etc as well as statutory consents such as planning, integrated pollution control, consents to build a power station, licence to generate electricity etc. 

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