CHALLENGES IN DEALING WITH EMISSIONS FOR PM, VOC AND HAP'S AN EPC CONTRACTOR EXPERIENCE

摘要

Despite the recent upheavals in the power industry market and the ever increasing cost of labor and power generation equipment, the customers of Engineering /Procurement/Construction (EPC) contractors are incongruously expecting to have power plants delivered for the same price per megawatt as a decade ago. (See Reference 1) This challenge is being made even more daunting by the continuing growth of environmental regulation. When planning a new power plant, developers often face the challenge of having the right balance between higher plant efficiency and lower pollutant emissions. While meeting all of the emissions limits imposed by various state and federal regulatory authorities is obviously mandatory, the compliant units must be also economically viable. To achieve this economic goal, gas turbine manufacturers are increasing the firing temperature and airflow to gain higher output and better heat rates, while simultaneously generating higher amounts of air pollution. Regulatory authorities, less constrained by the economic factors, are developing and implementing guidelines for even lower limits of particulate matter (PM), volatile organic compounds (VOC) and hazardous air pollutants (HAP's). The situation is no different for coal-fired power plants, where the resurgence of interest in coal, as an abundant and cheaper fuel, has drastically increased the development and attendant environmental permitting activity for these new plants. In some situations, the regulators are attempting to apply the combined cycle emissions related requirements on coal-fired plants, despite the major differences in combustion processes, fuel types, and air pollution control systems.