Estimation of Emissions from Coal Fired

Thermal Power Plants in India

By
Diwakar Kumar Singh
(183180010)

Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
9th April 2019

1
 INTRODUCTION

Coal is the primary fuel for electricity generation in India

Coal and lignite based power plants have approximately 54.42% of the
total electric power generation capacity (Mittal & Singh,2016)
Thermal power plants, using about 70% of total coal (Garg et. al., 2002)
They are contributing ,47% each for CO2 and SO2 in the total LPS
emissions in India (Garg et. al., 2002)
Figure-1: Fuel percentage used in the electricity generation(Mittal and Singh,2016)
 METHODOLOGY

 10 pulverized coal based power plant taken for estimation of CO2,SO2 &
NO
 Combustion temperature assumed to be 1500 K
 Mass emission factors for CO2, SO2, and nitric oxide (NO) are computed
based on the input data, such as chemical composition of the coal used at
the power plants and the actual air used during combustion.
Plant characteristics and elemental analysis of the coal/ lignite used at ten thermal power plants (Mittal
and Singh,2016)
Plant Characterization Elemental Analysis
Electricity Coal Excess C (%) H (%) S (%) N2 (%) O2 (% A (%)
Generation Consumptio air (%)
(million units) n (000T)
Dadari 7828.2 4931.8 25 40.3 4.16 .5 .9 15.92 38.22
Rihand 16743.4 10715.8 25 37.7 3.26 .39 .73 14.56 43.23
Chandarpur 14622.9 12283.3 10 37.7 2.66 .8 1.07 5.78 47
Dahanu 4481.9 2868.42 10 42.4 3.73 .39 .82 14.21 38.46
Neyveli 19449.1 14781.3 25 26.1 2.33 1.5 .24 16.33 7
Kutch 1209.4 882.9 25 28.3 3.03 2.25 .88 13.94 15
Kahalgaon 11313 9048.8 10 25.1 2.95 .17 .5 6.71 46
Simhadri 8520.7 6390.52 25 29 1.88 .25 .52 6.96 46
Sipat 8175 6196.65 25 30.7 2.3 .4 .6 5.35 45
Singrauli 16264 12283.3 20 50.2 4.78 .33 1.09 17.25 26.33
Air used
Oxygen (Or) required to burn one kilogram (kg) of coal =
Or = C*(32/12) + H*(16/2) +S*(32/32) –O2
Air mass required for Or kg of oxygen = ( Or / mass fraction of O2 in the air )
= Or / 0.21
If E is the percentage of excess air used in the furnace to burn the coal, the air
mass used =
Air (used) = (1 + E)* Or / 0.21
Knowing the air mass used to burn one kg of coal, mass of O2 and N2 are
calculated as
O2 in the air used = (1+ E)* Or
N2 in the air used = 0.78* (1+ E)* Or / 0.21
Mass of CO2, SO2 are calculated by mass balance as
CO2 = C*44/12
it is assumed that 12% of the carbon is lost as bottom and fly ash and are not
oxidized (Mandal,2008)
SO2 = S*64/32
 Oxidation of Nitrogen
 Emission of NO varies widely with boiler conditions and is generally
functions of flame temperature, excess air or concentration of oxygen in
the system
 This estimates give the equilibrium concentrations of NO assuming long
residence time as found in large boilers
 The oxidation of nitrogen is represented by
N2 + O2 →2NO
A simple stoichiometric calculation gives the equilibrium NO concentration as
XNO=(K*XN2*XO2)^0.5
X is the species concentration and K is an equilibrium constant that depends
upon the temperature of the gas
At 1500K, K=1.1*10^(-5)(Cooper & Alley)
Plant characteristics and elemental analysis of the coal/ lignite used at ten thermal power plants

S.No. Thermal Power Plant CO2 (Thousand ton) SO2 (Thousand ton) NO (Thousand ton)
1 Dadari 6413.05 49.32 49.37
2 Rihand 13035.27 83.58 96.25
3 Chandarpur 14942.06 196.53 47.2
4 Dahanu 3924.3 22.37 17.53
5 Neyveli 12448.2 443.44 86.6
6 Kutch 806.2 39.73 6.2
7 Kahalgaon 7328.6 30.77 36
8 Simhadri 5979.8 31.95 43.7
9 Sipat 6138.3 49.57 47.2
10 Singrauli 14942.1 74.07 122
 SUMMARY
 CO2 and SO2 emissions are influenced by the chemical composition
(particularly carbon and sulfur content) of coal and the coal usage per
unit of electricity
 NO emissions are influenced by the excess air used during combustion
coal usage and combustion temperature
 The emissions per unit of electricity are estimated to be in the range of
0.65 to 0.85 kg/kWh for CO2, 5 to 10 g/kWh for SO2, and 5 to 10 g/kWh
for NO
 REFERENCES
 Garg, A.; Kapse, M.; Shukla, P.R.; Ghosh, D., “Large Point Source
(LPS) emissions from India: regional and sect oral analysis”,
Atmospheric Environment. 2002, 36, 213-224.
 Mandal, P. K.: “High unburnt carbon problem in fly ash & bottom ash in
some Indian stations. 2008”, Water & Energy International. 2008, 65,
34-44.
 Alley,F.C.;Cooper,C.David; “Air pollution control-A Design Approch
fourth edition”.
 Mittal,L.Moti ; Sharma, Chhemendra and Singh Richa, “Emission rates
from coal power plant” Atmospheric Environment. 2016, 56, 513-264.