Planning and Cost Control of Air Quality Control Systems for 'Clean' Coal Power Generation

摘要

The economic merit for sustainable power generation from "clean" coal technology largely depends on a plant's air quality control system. The research in this paper examines "clean" coal technology in the U.S. and presents a case study of the processes for planning and upgrading an air quality control system at an existing coal fired power plant. Continuously striving for ever-improving plant reliability and operational functionality, several sub-systems within the current case study's air quality control system were identified for potential upgrades and expansion. The work associated with these improvements was performed during a three month plant-wide outage in 2015. The start-up and commissioning of the upgraded air quality control system was dependent on its logical relationships to other critical and near critical work within the plant's other systems. As existing coal fired power plants continue to be utilized concurrently with the construction of new plants, the economic efficiency for upgrading and constructing other air quality control systems will have impacts on human health and the environment at a global level. This paper presents the key decision points for identifying areas of improvement to air quality control systems and the methodology for planning and executing the work to ensure successful implementation.