Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The electric power industry is a large water user and is dependent upon reliable
water supplies. Adopting new water-conserving technologies for power production
can help alleviate the impact of future water shortages. Several water use reduction
technologies are available, each with different benefits and costs.
By far the largest use of water in power generation is for condenser cooling. Thermal
power plants require a large amount of cooling water to condense the steam turbine
exhaust steam. The lower the condensing temperature, the lower the backpressure on
the steam turbine, which increases plant thermal efficiency. The most effective
method of rejecting this heat is through the use of cooling water. Traditionally, power
plants have used three methods for condenser cooling: once-through, evaporative, and
dry cooling. Each has unique advantages and disadvantages.
With once-through cooling, water is withdrawn (typically from a lake, river, or
ocean), pumped through a condenser, and returned to the source at the same rate but
at an increased temperature (Figure 1). Once-through cooling provides the best power
plant efficiency of all the alternatives (such as cooling towers) because the source
water tends to be the lowest temperature heat sink available for most of the year.
1. Once-through cooling.Steam
Figure 3 shows a schematic of water use in a typical 500-MW thermal plant with a
wet cooling tower. The cooling tower in this example requires 6,253 gpm of
freshwater when running at full load. Makeup is required to replace the water lost to
evaporation, drift, and cooling tower blowdown.
3. Balanced water use. This schematic shows the water makeup requirement for a
typical 500-MW thermal plant using evaporative cooling towers. Source: EPRI
With dry cooling, heat is rejected from the condenser to the atmosphere by passing air
over the outside of a heat exchanger. There are generally two types of dry cooling:
direct and indirect. In direct dry cooling, steam is ducted to the air-cooled condenser
(ACC), where it is condensed (Figure 4). This cooling process has been used at
dozens of gas-fired combined cycle plants, largely located in the western U.S. With
indirect dry cooling, the steam is condensed in a traditional condenser by cooling
water that is then pumped to an air-cooled heat exchanger. Hybrid systems combine
wet and dry cooling processes. To date, there has been limited application of indirect
dry cooling in the U.S., and it has not been retrofitted to existing power plants.
6. Water use by power plant type. Water use varies widely among the different
power plant types. For example, simple Rankine cycles are the most water-intensive,
while solar photovoltaic and wind energy use no water to generate electricity. The
analysis assumes closed-cycle wet cooling towers are used. Gas-fired combined cycle
plants use about two-thirds less cooling water than a coal-fired plant, yet the typical
solar thermal plant uses about the same amount of water as a coal plant of equivalent
capacity. Source: EPRI
There are four major strategies for reducing freshwater use in thermoelectric
generation. Each has been used to varying degrees at different power plants,
depending on local water resources and capital and operating costs:
Dry or Hybrid Cooling. Although dry cooling can virtually eliminate power plant
cooling water needs, it presents several challenges to cost and plant performance.
The total capital cost for power plants with dry cooling is typically more than 10%
higher than power plants equipped with wet cooling, due to requirements for large
finned-tube heat exchangers, fans and drive motors, and steel structures to provide
ground clearance for proper air circulation. The capital cost of the dry cooling system
itself is three to five times higher than for a wet cooling tower, and dry cooling
operating costs are higher. Overall, EPRI estimates that the cost of dry cooling the
typical 500-MW steam plant introduced in Figure 3 adds about 12.6% to the average
capital cost of the typical once-through or wet cooling tower approach.
The fans needed for air circulation are much more powerful and numerous, increasing
the units parasitic load and reducing the net power. Dry cooling provides a steam
condensing temperature typically 40F+ higher than the dry-bulb temperature,
reducing average unit efficiency by 10% or more on the hottest days. The unit may
also experience a reduction in capacity on hot days (Figure 7).
7. Hot day power loss. The performance of a typical 500-MW coal-fired plant using
dry cooling is highly temperature-dependent; therefore, expected plant performance
will vary considerably, based on location. Source: EPRI
As a consequence of the efficiency penalty for dry cooling, the plant requires more
fuel to produce the same amount of electrical energy compared with once-through
cooling or cooling towers; therefore, the emissions of air pollutants and CO2 per unit
of electrical energy delivered (pounds of pollutant per MWh) are greater.
There are other practical consequences for operators of dry cooling systems. Dry
cooling systems are significantly larger than traditional wet cooling towers and
require additional land. The large number of cooling fans can create noise issues,
which can be alleviated with the purchase of low-speed, low-noise fansbut those
add to costs.
Also, high winds can stall airflow in leading edge fans, causing a sudden drop in ACC
performance and translating into higher backpressure on the steam turbine. The
control system will generally reduce steam flow to the turbine as the backpressure
alarm point is approached, which reduces unit generation capacity. Under gusty wind
conditions, there have been cases where the controls and system components did not
respond fast enough to limit backpressure, and the units tripped off line to protect the
turbines from damage.
Hybrid systems combine wet and dry cooling towers (Figure 8). This arrangement
allows most of the heat to be rejected to the atmosphere on cooler days, avoiding the
use of cooling water, while maintaining the power plants thermal efficiency during
hot days, with the wet tower taking part of the cooling load.
8. Hybrid cooling system. A hybrid cooling system combines the best features of the
wet cooling tower and the air-cooled condenser. Source: EPRI
Hybrid cooling is becoming more popular because the tower sizes can be minimized
to reduce additional costs, and performance is better than with air-cooling only. There
are many ways to optimize such a system, depending on the goals of the plant design
and the available water sources. EPRI guidelines are available to assist plant designers
with this optimization process.
Increased Thermal Conversion Efficiency. High-efficiency natural gas combined
cycle power plants have a large benefit from a water conservation standpoint, as
shown in Figure 6. Because the combustion turbines produce roughly two-thirds of
The retrofit of wet cooling towers will result in negative consequences, such as lower
thermal efficiency and correspondingly increased air pollutant and CO2 emissions per
unit of electrical energy (MWh) generated, cooling tower drift, and blowdown issues.
In addition to the cost of purchasing and constructing cooling towers for the plant, the
designer would need to consider whether to reoptimize the remainder of the power
plant to reduce the efficiency penalty.
Retrofitting to cooling towers may also require water pretreatment
(softening/clarification), scale and corrosion inhibition additions, and blowdown
treatment for discharge regulations, including possible zero liquid discharge. All of
these treatment processes (plus the cost of the cooling towers) will add millions of
dollars of infrastructure as well as significant operational and maintenance expenses.
Retrofit Dry Cooling. Dry cooling retrofits are very difficult for existing plants, and
the high retrofit costs may render the plant uneconomic to operate. The balance of the
plant would have to be redesigned to work with the dry cooling system, because it
operates at such different conditions than wet cooling towers for five distinct reasons:
Dry cooling will cool to the dry bulb temperature, whereas a wet cooling tower
cools the water to the wet bulb temperature. Turbines designed for new plants to
be equipped with dry cooling are normally modified to accommodate the
expected higher turbine backpressure.
Air-cooled systems work most effectively when the steam is ducted straight to
the ACC. There are two options for converting a water-cooled plant to air
cooling: use indirect dry cooling, where the steam is condensed by recirculating
water and the heated water is routed to an air-cooled heat exchanger, or remove
the condenser and route the steam directly to an ACC. Because the ACC has a
lower efficiency impact (by eliminating the temperature drop across the
condenser), it would be the preferred choice over indirect dry cooling.
Removing the condenser and circulating water lines and routing large-bore
steam piping past the turbine pedestal and to the ACC would be difficult and
expensive, especially below grade level.
Air-cooled systems are typically used on combined cycle plants for the reasons
presented earlier. This is one reason why, in recent years, the predominant plant
built in the western U.S. (where dry cooling is needed) has been natural gas
combined cycle plants.
In addition to the efficiency penalties discussed above, hot day operation with
ACCs can result in capacity loss, which usually coincides with peak system load
(air conditioning) and the highest power prices. This occurs because as turbine
backpressure rises to near trip points, the operators must reduce steam flow to
prevent a unit trip (Figure 9).
Retrofitting ACCs to an existing unit would affect plant operation and internal
assets. For example, iron corrosion and transport is typically an issue with units
9. Lost hot day performance. The main disadvantage of the air-cooling tower is that
on hot days, turbine back pressure rises more quickly than in the typical once-through
or wet condenser cooling system. Rising condenser pressure means lost steam turbine
performance and efficiency.Source: EPRI
Convert to Partial- or Full-Degraded Water Use. This method is probably the
easiest water conservation technique to adopt for existing plants. Its advantages are
that the thermodynamics of the plant and the power block equipment remain largely
unchanged. Depending on the distance of the source water from the power plant,
transportation costs (building pipelines and pump stations) can be one of the largest
expenses, but there may also be costs associated with water and wastewater treatment
systems and chemical additives. The plant would also need to be evaluated to ensure
that construction materials are compatible with the expected water quality.
Water Shortage Sharing Agreements. EPRI is currently implementing a variety of
tools to assist electric power companies with water issues. For example, WaterPRISM
is a modeling tool that allows stakeholders in a given watershed to evaluate water
reduction and sharing options. This can even include special reductions during