Power plants commercial

For purposes of characterization, emission sources are generally divided broadly into stationary and mobile or transportation sources. Stationary sources are further divided into point and area emitters. Typical point sources must include petroleum refineries and electric power plants. Commercial solvent emission and gasoline marketing emission may generally be represented as area sources. A third category has been defined recently—indirect sources—that takes into account hybrid sources like sports arenas and shopping centers. These have fixed locations, but the traffic that is generated by or attracted to such a facility constitutes the source of emission that is combined with the emission of the facility itself. 

Many marine vessels, power plants, commercial buildings and industrial facilities use residual fuels or combinations of residual and distillate fuels for heating and processing. The two most critical specifications of residual fuels are viscosity and low sulfur content for environmental control. 

A subsidiary of lEC and Toshiba Corp. called ONSI Corp. was formed for the commercial development, production, and marketing of packaged PAEC power plants of up to 1-MW capacities. ONSI is commercially manufacturing 200-kW PAEC systems for use in a PC25 power plant. The power plants are manufactured in a highly automated faciHty, using robotic techniques to assemble the repeating electrode, bipolar separator, etc, units into the fuel cell stack. 

From the standpoint of commercialization of fuel ceU technologies, there are two challenges initial cost and reHable life. The initial selling price of the 200-kW PAFC power plant from IFC was about 3500/kW. A competitive price is projected to be about 1500/kW orless for the utiHty and commercial on-site markets. For transportation appHcations, cost is also a critical issue. The fuel ceU must compete with conventional mass-produced propulsion systems. Furthermore, it is not clear if the manufacturing cost per kilowatt of small fuel ceU systems can be lower than the cost of much larger units. The life of a fuel ceU stack must be five years minimum for utiHty appHcations, and reHable, maintenance-free operation must be achieved over this time period. The projection for the PAFC stack is a five year life, but reHable operation has yet to be demonstrated for this period. 

Another factor is the potential economic benefit that may be realized due to possible future environmental regulations from utilizing both waste and virgin biomass as energy resources. Carbon taxes imposed on the use of fossil fuels in the United States to help reduce undesirable automobile and power plant emissions to the atmosphere would provide additional economic incentives to stimulate development of new biomass energy systems. Certain tax credits and subsidies are already available for commercial use of specific types of biomass energy systems (93). 

F. Hals, "Conceptual Design Study of Potential Eady Commercial MHD Power Plant," NH374 CK-165235, NASA Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio, Mar. 1981, pp. 3—60. 

Demand. The demand for uranium in the commercial sector is primarily determined by the requirements of power reactors. At the beginning of 1993, there were 424 nuclear power plants operating worldwide, having a combined capabity of about 330 GWe. Moderate but steady growth is projected for nuclear capacity to the year 2010. The capacity in 2010 is expected to be about 446 GWe (29). 

If possible comparisons are focused on energy systems, nuclear power safety is also estimated to be superior to all electricity generation methods except for natural gas (30). Figure 3 is a plot of that comparison in terms of estimated total deaths to workers and the pubHc and includes deaths associated with secondary processes in the entire fuel cycle. The poorer safety record of the alternatives to nuclear power can be attributed to fataUties in transportation, where comparatively enormous amounts of fossil fuel transport are involved. Continuous or daily refueling of fossil fuel plants is required as compared to refueling a nuclear plant from a few tmckloads only once over a period of one to two years. This disadvantage appHes to solar and wind as well because of the necessary assumption that their backup power in periods of no or Httie wind or sun is from fossil-fuel generation. Now death or serious injury has resulted from radiation exposure from commercial nuclear power plants in the United States (31). 

Reactor Safety Study An Assessment of Accident Risks in U.S. Commercial Nuclear Power Plants, Report WASH-1400 (NUREG-75/014), U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C., Oct. 1975. 

In 1956, the world s first commercial nuclear power plant started operation in England. By the 1960s, many nuclear power plants were built worldwide. At the end of the twentieth century, nuclear generating plants are used widely by U.S. electric utiHties. Since 1984, these plants have provided the second largest share of total U.S. electricity generation, 21% of annual GW-h generated, behind coal-fired power plants (see Nuclearreactors). 

In 1980, Congress deterrnined that each state should be responsible for ensuring the proper handling and disposal of commercial low level nuclear wastes generated in their states. Regional disposal sites have also been estabHshed at BamweU, South Carolina, and Ward Valley, California. These wastes are handled by Hcensed disposal faciHties where they are packaged, placed in burial trenches, and covered with soil. Less than half of the low level nuclear waste produced annually in the United States comes from nuclear power plants. Low level nuclear power plant wastes include contaminated equipment. 

A process development known as NOXSO (DuPont) (165,166) uses sodium to purify power plant combustion flue gas for removal of nitrogen oxide, NO, and sulfur, SO compounds. This technology reHes on sodium metal generated in situ via thermal reduction of sodium compound-coated media contained within a flue-gas purification device, and subsequent flue-gas component reactions with sodium. The process also includes downstream separation and regeneration of spent media for recoating and circulation back to the gas purification device. A full-scale commercial demonstration project was under constmction in 1995. 

Electric power generation using biomass as a fuel is economic in situations where the cost of the fuel is competitive with that of fossil fuels. The cost of a commercially available biomass steam—electric power plant is about 1500/kW for a wood-fired facility. If wood can be obtained at a cost of 2.00/GJ ( 2.10 X 10 /Btu), the total cost of power for base-load operation would be about 0.05/kWh. If wood or agricultural wastes are available at... 

The 1990 Amendments to the U.S. Clean Air Act require a 50% reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions by the year 2000. Electric power stations are beheved to be the source of 70% of all sulfur dioxide emissions (see Power generation). As of the mid-1990s, no utiUties were recovering commercial quantities of elemental sulfur ia the United States. Two projects had been aimounced Tampa Electric Company s plan to recover 75,000—90,000 metric tons of sulfuric acid (25,000—30,000 metric tons sulfur equivalent) aimuaHy at its power plant ia Polk County, Elorida, and a full-scale sulfur recovery system to be iastaHed at PSl Energy s Wabash River generating station ia Terre Haute, Indiana. Completed ia 1995, the Terre Haute plant should recover about 14,000 t/yr of elemental sulfur. 

The demand for uranium ia the commercial sector is primarily determined by the consumption and inventory requirements of nuclear power reactors. In March 1997, there were 433 nuclear power plants operating worldwide with a combined capacity of about 345 GWe (net gigawatts electric)... 

The first commercial appHcation of precious metals for the reduction of nitrogen oxides in power plant emission control was in 1989. W. R. Grace s... 

---