Babcock & Wilcox's Approach to an Integrated Low Emission Power Plant

T he cost-effective integration of the various systems in a power plant is a major consideration in the selection of control technologies for compliance with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) is currently investigating the interactions and impacts of incorporating the most effective pollution control technologies as integral parts of a coal-fired power plant in a project entitled. "Engineering Development of Advanced Coal-Fired Low Emission Boiler Systems (LEBS)." The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center. The overall goal of the DOE's program is to dramatically improve environmental performance and thermal efficiency of conventional, Rankine cycle, coal-fired power plants. Specific objectives of B&Ws LEBS project include the development of SOx and NOx removal systems capable of reducing emissions to one-third of that allowed under the current New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), a particulates removal system capable of one-half the regulated NSPS amount, as well as addressing the concerns of solid waste generation and air toxics regulation. While meeting each objective separately, the technologies of choice must be designed to complement one another. Some examples of the interactions that are being addressed in B&Ws LEBS project are: • How furnace sorbent injection processes impact boiler design and performance. • How low - NOx operation impacts boiler design, performance, and reliability. • How the SOx. NOx. and particulate removal systems affect auxiliary power consumption. solid waste generation, and the formation, partitioning and emissions of air toxic species. Environmental controls will be integrated with combustion, heat transfer, and all other aspects of power plant design to create a power plant design for the 21st century. The cost-effective integration of advanced emissions control, boiler, and balance-of-plant subsystems is discussed.