Engineering evaluation of magma cooling-tower demonstration at Nevada Power Company's Sunrise Station. Final report
The Magma Cooling Tower (MCT) process utilizes a falling film heat exchanger integrated into an induced draft cooling tower to evaporate wastewater. A hot water source such as return cooling water (90/sup 0/F to 110/sup 0/F) provides the energy for evaporation. Water quality control is maintained by removing potential scaling constituents to make concentration of the wastewater possible without scaling heat transfer surfaces. A pilot-scale demonstration test of the MCT process was performed from March 1979 through June 1979 at Nevada Power Company's Sunrise Station in Las Vegas, Nevada. The pilot unit extracted heat from the powerplant cooling system to evaporate cooling tower blowdown. Two water quality control methods were employed: makeup/sidestream softening and fluidized bed crystallization. The 11-week softening mode test was successful. The unit operated without biofouling or scaling at 100,000 ppM TDS levels under a wide range of operating conditions. Successful operation was not demonstrated in the 10-day crystallization mode test; calcium sulfate (CaSO/sub 4/) scaling occurred on the last day of the test at a maximum brine concentration of less than 40,000 ppM. An economic and technical comparison with other zero-discharge technologies showed that, for application at Sunrise, the MCT process had competitive capital, operating, and levelized annual costs. No major technical problems were encountered that would preclude the commercial application of a properly designed MCT unit operating in the softening mode.
- Research Organization:
- CH2M Hill, Bellevue, WA (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6724900
- Report Number(s):
- EPRI-CS-1626
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
COOLING TOWERS
DESIGN
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
PERFORMANCE
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
EVAPORATIVE COOLING
NEVADA
OPERATION
PERFORMANCE TESTING
WASTE PROCESSING
WASTE WATER
WATER QUALITY
COOLING
ECONOMICS
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
LIQUID WASTES
MANAGEMENT
NORTH AMERICA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POWER PLANTS
PROCESSING
TESTING
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
USA
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
WATER
WESTERN REGION
200101* - Fossil-Fueled Power Plants- Cooling & Heat Transfer Equipment & Systems