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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Utility Engineering`s experience in the design, equipment selection, and operation of CEMS for utilities

Conference ·
OSTI ID:271816
; ;  [1]
  1. Utility Engineering Corp., Amarillo, TX (United States)
This paper explores the experiences of Utility Engineering (UE) in the design, selection of equipment, installation, certification, and operation of CEMS for utilities. As the engineer for Southwestern Public Service Company and other utilities, UE was tasked with formulating a CEMS design that would meet regulatory requirements as well as provide high levels of availability, reliability, and accuracy. A CEMS consists of four major elements--the sampling system, flue gas flow monitors (where necessary), analyzers/sample conditioning, and the control and data acquisition/reporting system. The engineers of UE surveyed various CEM equipment on the market and those in service. From that data base, project engineers designed a CEMS to best meet utility needs. The UE CEMS does not use any one particular vendor`s equipment, rather it integrates individual components that UE`s engineers determined would result in an optimized total system. UE selected a distributed control-based system for data gathering and system control along with a sampling and analysis system that maintains a directly-extracted heated flue gas sample throughout the process. This approach is somewhat unique in the power generation industry considering that most CEMS being installed are PC-based using a dry or dilution sampling system. The authors will overview the equipment selection process, the software development and installation phases, problems that were not anticipated and explore methods of solution. Further discussion will address certification, setbacks and lessons learned dealing with testers and environmental agencies. Finally, operational data will be presented with emphasis on how well the system performs compared to the original design criteria.
OSTI ID:
271816
Report Number(s):
CONF-950196--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English