Universiti Tenaga Nasional College of Engineering MEHM 543 Fuel Management

Semester 1: 2011-2012 Ir. Mokhtar Majid

Assignment No.1 7-Jun-11

Ahmed Basheer Gheni Sm21351

Question No.1 Do you think clean coal technologies are just merely a "public acceptance" exercise to promote to the public the wide utilization of coal for power and energy generation or do they offer sustainable solutions to energy and hence fuel supply, and to the protection of the environment? Discuss on above.

1. Introduction Coal represents at present about 70% of worlds proven fossil fuel resources. Moreover, coal has lower cost among the different fossil fuels. Thus coal is likely to remain one of the main sources of primary energy for a long time, playing a strategic role in the mediumlong-term energy production systems. The growing energy demands of developing countries together with the need of a signicant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are the challenging tasks of future energy policies. The perspectives of coal as energy source are based on success in the energy market of clean coal technologies (CCT), where good thermodynamic performances of power plant are joined with a control of pollutant emissions (mainly CO2 emissions). 2. What makes coal unclean and what clean coal technologies claim Coal is a complex chemical latticework of carbon, hydrogen, and dozens of trace elements. When combusted, some of these elements, such as sulfur, nitrogen, and mercury, are converted to chemical forms that can create pollutants in air and water. Carbon, the main constituent, combines with oxygen during combustion to form carbon dioxide (CO2), which has been identied as a key contributor to global warming. Coal also contains sulfur, which burns to produce SO2. Moreover coal-red stations emit tonnes of ash through their chimneys, 80% of which is particulates smaller than 10 mm particle matter (PM), arsenic, hydrochloric acid, mercury, nickel, and lead. Moreover combustion produces NOx. The local acceptance of new plants is generally based on choice of pollutant emission limits well below the existing legislation (e.g. in USA, Japan, Italy). The Italian environmental limits are represented today by 400/200/50 mg/nm3 for SO2, NOx, and particle matter, while the European Directive 2001/80/CE, which will be operative by the next years, reduces the limits to 200/200/30 mg/nm3 for SO2, NOx, and particle matter. CCT are the basis for long-term acceptance of coal and is a exible concept, which can be used by all countries. Three different stages to achieve clean coal are available: (1) Control and reduction of pollutants SO2, NOx, mercury, and PM (excluding CO2). (2) Advanced technologies (the efficiency pathway). (3) Long-term vision of CO2 capture and storage.

3. The future challenges of clean coal technologies Let us consider now the problem of CO2. It is well known that recent PCC (pulverised-coal combustion) plants are characterized by a level of CO2 emission in the range of 850900 g/kWh. The level of 750 g/kWh can be reached both by means of USC (ultra-supercritical) plants and IGCC (integrated gasication combined cycle) plants. It is really difficult that the barrier of 750 g/kWh can be broken without any mitigation strategies. Coal (C) emits at least the double of CH4. Emission factor from coal (EFC) can be calculated by

where HV is the heating value of the fuel (1232 MJ/kg), CC the carbon content of coal (6090%), CE the combustion efficiency (0.90.95), and CR is an opportune conversion rate (0.2778 in the case of MW and kWh). In normal conditions EF is approximately in the range 0.30.4 kg CO2/kWhth. Considering the actually available efficiency values (0.350.45) it gives a level of emission energy produced of 0.7501 kg CO2/kWhel. The advanced technologies for coal conversion like USC and IGCC can contribute to the CO2 emission mitigation mostly due to the efficiency increase (USC technology) and to different plant architecture (IGCC). Fig. 1 summarizes the range of specic CO2 emissions available with various coal technologies in comparison with the reference level represented by CO2 emission of natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plants.

Fig. 1

4. Research and development lines in the eld of clean coal technologies Under the urgent need of advanced technologies for electricity generation using coal as fuel, projects related to CCT for power generation are undertaken worldwide, particularly in the United States and in Europe. Primary focus of these efforts is to develop innovative concepts for pollutant control. The projects concern new and advanced technologies for pollutant control (SOx, NOx, PM, etc.), including those more economic and ecocompatible than the actually available, that can be retrotted to existing baseload coal-red power generating capacities. Major efforts include low-NOx combustion, mercury control, ne particulate control, byproduct utilization, water management, and analysis on mercury formation during combustion and during subsequent treatments. Other research lines concern new materials and advanced diagnostics for USC plants, IGCC plants with CO2 capture and separation, and zero liquid discharge plants. The promising EFCC technology is nowadays only at evaluation of proof concepts but it seems the only strategy for promoting the development of low-size plants (1050 MW) based on coal as primary fuel. 5. Conclusions Over the past decade, the role of coal as an energy source for the future has gained renewed interest and it is, therefore, likely that coal will remain in an important position among the primary resources. Concerning the emission control strategies it is possible to observe good success in controlling PM, NOx, and Sox emissions. Advanced, low-cost emission control systems have been successfully demonstrated and employed in several plants, but difficulties about maintenance of standards during operating life of the plant are observed. Moreover the high sensitivity to the type of coal used and problems with auxiliary material (ammonia, urea, limestone, and gypsum) are well known. Regarding the advanced technologies, it is clear that CCT, which are likely to make serious contributions to energy sector in the next years, is on the one hand supercritical pulverised coal ring and on the other hand integrated gasication combined cycles (IGCCs). A superiority of USC solution in a mid-term scenario can be evidenced. From a long-term perspective, the development of IGCC solutions appears interesting due to the inherently cleaner process because coal is not combusted and pollutants can be removed with greater efficiency. About CO2 capture and storage only early research work and promising strategies are available but uncertainty about perspectives is apparent. The application of CO2 capture technologies to the existing plants appears to be a quitecritical task but the development of power plants in which the removal systems are integrated into the process appears really interesting. References
[1] Alessandro Franco, Ana R. Diaz: The future challenges for clean coal technologies [2] Lan Dunlop, FEI: Climate change, energy security and the transition to global sustainability

Question No.2 Energy efficiency, and hence fuel economy; both supply-side and demand-side, should take priority development of renewable. Do you agree with this statement? Why and why not?

Energy specialists have already developed several renewable energy sources for electricity generation. Extensive research and studies are also in place to see the viability of these renewable energies for transport and industry use. It could be a stepping stone in freeing ourselves from too much dependence on fossil fuels which is presently fast depleting. Why is renewable energy more important than energy efficiency? Of course, energy specialist will not be developing such energy if fossil fuels are enough to provide energy in this world. This article will discuss some of the reasons why it is important for us. Reason No.1: Clean Environment Renewable energy for electricity production benefits our health and our environment. Electricity generation is one of the largest contributors of industrial air pollution, releasing thousands of tons of pollutants and greenhouse gases. It affects our health in terms of acquiring respiratory tract diseases and our ecosystem through drastic climate changes. If we will be using renewable energy, we will avoid such environmental and health problems. Reason No.2: Reliability We all know that domestic deposits of fossil fuels are fast depleting. Thus, it makes us more dependent on international supplies from other countries. Unlike fossil fuels, renewable energy is abundant almost everywhere. It does not need to be imported, so its reliability is not covered by unpredictable circumstances such as world price trends or natural disasters. Reason No.3: Sustainability Renewable energy is naturally replenished, so it can sustain even hundreds of generations to come. For instance, the sun remaining life span is estimated to be 4.5 billion years before it eventually explodes. Imagine how many generations can use solar power. Reason No.4: Jobs and the Economy Most renewable energy investments are spent on materials and workforce to establish and maintain facilities rather than investing on expensive energy imports. It is usually spent within the country, within the same state, and often in the same local area. Instead of spending millions of dollars for energy imports, it will just be spent locally to create jobs and boost local economies. These are some of the reasons why renewable energy is important to us. We need to be less dependent on importing energy if we can just utilize energy resources that are abundant in our environment. It is a step forward in improving not only our lives but also using the Earth resources properly. Reference
- Ecobaan Environment: http://www.ecobaan.com/