Power plants fuel characteristics

Goodarzi, F. (2006) Characteristics and composition of fly ash from Canadian coal-fired power plants. Fuel, 85(10-11), 1418-27. 

R. P. AHen, R. A. Battista, and T. E. Ekstrom, "Characteristics of an Advanced Gas Turbiue with Coal Derived Fuel Gases," Ninth NnnualEPRJ Conference on Gasification Power Plants, Palo Alto, Calif., Oct. 1990. 

Connection to the utility grid provides many advantages to on-site power producers such as reliability improvement and increase of load factor, as well as giving the electric utilities a chance to improve the supply capability. When a fuel cell power plant is used for electric utility applications, the inverter is the interface equipment between the fuel cell and the electrical network. The inverter acts as the voltage and frequency adjuster to the final load. The interface conditions require the following characteristics for the inverter ... 

Operators of the Tokyo demonstration plant have concluded that phosphoric acid fuel cell technology is ready for commercialization. The project demonstrated that (I) fuel cells can be sited in urban areas which are regulated by strict environmental constraints (2) performance and operational characteristics were very close to design goals and (3) utility personnel can efficiently operate and maintain fuel cell plant equipment with minimal additional training. As a consequence of the demonstration plant success, a new 11 -MW power plant will be developed and marketed. A comparison of the new 1 C 23 Unit with the 4,5 MW demonstration plant is given in Table 4. 

TABLE 4. COMPARISON OF CHARACTERISTICS-DEMONSTRATION AND COMMERCIAL FUEL CELL POWER PLANTS... 

Baker, G. Clarke, P. Gerstle, R. Mason, W. Phillips, M., "Emission Characteristics of Major Fossil Fuel Power Plants in the Ohio River Valley," Knapp, K. T., Project Officer EPA Contract No. 68-02-3271, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC, 1984. 

Our goal is to gradually replace all coal and fossil fuel power plants with renewable energy ones, but while they exist (and probably will for most of this century), it is very important to reduce the damage they cause by optimizing their operation. In the United States, there are about 1000 coal preparation plants and coal-fired power plants. One key consideration in operating coalburning facilities is the control of C02 and sulfur dioxide (S02) emissions to the atmosphere. The characteristics of coal are monitored for environmental protection, quality assurance, and process control purposes. 

The major market for the product fuel oil for the demonstration plant and near-term future commercial plants is expected to be existing power plants in the coastal metropolitan areas, where the physical and environmental costs of conversion to coal make such a conversion impractical. A significant characteristic of the SRC-II fuel oil for this application is its low sulfur content and thus the capability to meet stringent emission limits in urban areas. Coal-derived residual fuels will, in general, not meet these requirements without stack gas cleanup. 

The allocation provisions for additional new plants (and plant expansions) were changed in two essential ways, compared to the draft BMU plan of 29 January 2004 (BMU 2004). First of all, a fuel differentiation of the emission benchmarks was introduced. Then a maximum value of 750 g CC /kWh was fixed as an electricity benchmark. If the affected power plants showed an emission value lower than 750 g C02/kWh due to the characteristics of the fuel, the allocation should not be higher than the real emissions. However, a benchmark of at least 365 g CC /kWh should be applied. This means that for the power plants that function with hard coal or with less emission-intensive fuels, a fuel differentiation would be introduced. 

In all high-temperature combustion processes, particularly power plants and automobiles, NO. is produced by the direct reaction of N2 + O2, and from nitrogen-containing fuels. It can then be oxidized by either HO2, RO2, or O3 to NO2. In the presence of NO , and sunlight, the oxidation of CO, CH4, and other hydrocarbons results in substantial ozone production. In an urban environment, the diurnal cycle of these trace species will generally exhibit a characteristic pattern of concentration maxima first in NO, then NO2, followed by O3 around midday (National Academy of Sciences, 1977). This pattern... 

The electrical energy produced in fuel cells is characterized by the voltage (V) and the current (i). The product tV is the available electrical capacity. When constructing a classical installation for energy production these characteristics are fixed. The capacity of a car depends in the first place on the cylinder volume the generator of an electric power plant is designed for the required production capacity. 

This chapter gives a brief account of the nuclear fission reaction and the most important fissile fuels. It continues with a short description of a typical nuclear power plant and outlines the characteristics of the principal reactor types proposed for nuclear power generation. It sketches the principal fuel cycles for nuclear power plants and points out the chemical engineering processes needed to make these fuel cycles feasible and economical. The chapter concludes with an outline of another process that may some day become of practical importance for the production of power the controlled fusion of light elements. The fusion process makes use of rare isotopes of hydrogen and lithium, which may be produced by isotop>e separation methods analogous to those used for materials for fission reactors. As isotope separation processes are of such importance in nuclear chemical engineering, they are discussed briefly in this chapter and in some detail in the last three chapters of this book. 

The characteristics of several QCM instruments for aerosol measurement have been reviewed (ll). Particles are collected by impaction, electrostatic precipitation or both. The mass sensitivity is reported to be affected by the location of deposited particles on the crystal, the size of the particles, and the type of coating. In addition, the sensitivity changes as the crystal becomes loaded. Despite some limitations, most of the studies Indicated that QCMs can be successfully used for aerosol measurement with good correlation coefficient with the reference filtration method. Applications included measurement of aerosol in ambient air, particulate emission from automobiles and diesel engines, smoke plume from a coal-fired power plant, solid fueled rocket plvune, and particulate matter in the effluents in combustion sources. 

Use of Different Fuels and Their Characteristics - The best commercial, dry, low NOx combustors today are optimized for clean-burning natural gas. However, with raised natural gas prices over the next decade, power plants may be forced to burn low-heating value fuel gas, products of gasification or low quality residual fuels. As the combustion becomes more complicated, e.g. lean-premixed combustors, to handle NOx emissions from different fuels is bound to become more complex, too. Hence, development of the catalytic combustor must also be directed towards fuels other than natural gas. These fuels could be other hydrocarbon feedstock, e.g. diesel fuels,which are more available than natural gas in some parts of the world, and kerosene,which is used for jet-turbines in aeroplanes. An increased use of renewable fuels, such as methanol, ethanol and low-heating value fuels derived from biomass or waste will also lead to a demand to put these fuels to use in gas turbines. ... 

All these features of nuclear power plants make it very attractive for developing countries to introduce nuclear power and for industrialized countries to expand nuclear power usage. In addition, the need to improve the fuel cycle, waste management and nuclear proliferation resistance, requires special design characteristics and fuel management provisions. 

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