Utilities fuels cost

Utility costs vary enormously. This is especially true of fuel costs. Not only do costs vary considerably between different fuels (coal, oil, natural gas), but costs also tend to be sensitive to market fluctuations. Contractual relationships also have a significant effect on fuel costs. The price paid for fuel may depend very much on how much is purchased. 

Fuel costs vaiy widely from one area to another because of the cost of the fuel itself and the cost of transportation. Any meaningful cost comparison between fuels requires current costs based on such factors as the amounts used at a particular geographical location, utilization efficiencies or energy-ratio data for the equipment involved, and the effects of Torm v ue. Although the costs given in Table 27-9 do not apply to specific locations, they give fuel-cost trends. 

In addition to the fixed capital investment needed to purchase and install process equipment and auxiliaries, there is a continuous expenditure referred to as operating cost, which is needed to operate the process. The operating cost (or manufacturing cost or production cost) includes raw materials, mass-separating agents, utilities (fuel, electricity, steam, water, refrigerants, air, etc.), catalysts, additives, labor, and maintenance. The total annualized cost of a process is defined as follows ... 

Very large, modem WT boilers with sophisticated heat-recovery auxiliaries may attain efficiencies approaching 88 to 90%. However, the overall efficiency of a fossil fuel utility power generation plant system falls to only 32 to 38% when the efficiency of electricity generation and condenser cooling is included. Nevertheless, it only requires 10% more in fuel costs to operate a boiler at 1,250 psig than... 

Table 23.5 Fuel costs for the utility system in Figure 23.529.

Utilities-cost, quantity and reliability fuel-costs, reliability and availability... 

Prior to 1974, when fuel costs were low, distillation column trains used a strategy involving the substantial consumption of utilities such as steam and cooling water in order to maximize separation (i.e., product purity) for a given tower. However, the operation of any one tower involves certain limitations or constraints on the process, such as the condenser duty, tower tray flooding, or reboiler duty. 

In the U.S. about 8% of the energy is provided by biomass and almost 90% of this comes from the combustion of wood and wood residues. The use of biomass increased from an installed capacity of 200 megawatts in 1980 to over 7,700 megawatts in 1990. The search for cleaner fuels and landfill restraints are the main reasons for increased biomass utilization. The cost of waste disposal has soared and landfill sites are closing faster than new ones are opening up. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that between 1978 and 1988, 70% of the nation s landfills, about 14,000 sites closed. 

In 1996, Delphi estimated the cost of processing wastes at 2.50 to 10.00/kg. Among the factors listed as affecting cost were quantity of waste, labor rates, initial contaminant concentration, characteristics of residual waste, waste handling and pretreatment, amount of debris, utility/fuel rates, and target contaminant concentration (D13821G, p. 24). 

In 1991 the vendor estimated the cost of thermal desorption technology to be approximately 80 per ton of soil treated, based on a system that treats soil with 20% moisture content at a rate of 10 tons per hour. This cost includes 20 per ton for depreciation and 60 per ton for labor, utilities, fuel, materials and supplies, and administrative costs (D12872N, p. 44). 

Practical Utilization, Since the potential reserves of 235U are limited, some point will be reached where this power source no longer will be competitive with fossil fuels, synthetic fuels, solar power plants, etc.—unless the development of means for the practical utilization of plutonium can be achieved. An important element of nuclear fuel cost is the credit received from the sale or future utilization of plutonium after its recovery from spent fuel. The plutonium credit is realistic only if the plutonium is used for power production, since, at present, there are few commercial uses envisioned where it would yield a similar economic return. 

With the conversion to a mechanical feed system, they expect to double their tdf feed capacity and run 4 tons per hour. This should result in a considerable fuel cost savings, because they can obtain tdf for about 1 per million Btu, whereas they would otherwise be burning more coal which costs about 2 per million Btu. With the new configuration they could obtain 10 percent of their heating value from tdf, 10 percent from natural gas, and 80 percent from coal. Both their old and new configurations utilize 2-inch by 2-inch pieces of tdf. With the new capacity Arizona Portland could increase its capacity to over 3 million scrap tires per year. In 1990, Arizona Portland utilized approximately 1 million scrap tires (54). 

The larger question of what happens beyond the first few plants cannot be answered with any more certainty. Even the basic question of plant ownership offers a dilemma. Regulated utility financing would bring lower fuel costs to that utility. However, it means attempting to operate a complex facility without suitable corporate experience in refining and marketing. 

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