Agricultural waste water as a potential source of cooling water for California electric power plants

Technical Report · Thu May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1980

OSTI ID:5165730

MacDonald, T; Wire, C

The potential of agricultural waste water in California to serve as a source of cooling water for new power plants is described, and the considerations which influence the viability of this alternative are discussed. It includes summaries of investigations of agricultural waste water use that were undertaken in conjunction with three different power plant proposals. Before agricultural waste water can be considered an available and preferred source of cooling water supply for a significant portion of the state's future power plants, several problems and uncertainties need to be resolved. In the San Joaquin Valley, installation of on-farm tile drains and a valley-wide waste water collection system remains to be accomplished. The diversion of agricultural waste water flowing to the Salton Sea in the Imperial Valley faces objections from interests seeking to protect the Sea's fishery and wildlife resources. Waste water returned to the Colorado River is not available for use unless the River's flow is augmented by an equivalent amount of water from another source. In addition to the above concerns, which are specific to waste water flows in individual regions, there are some general constraints to the use of waste water for power plant cooling. These include problems with disposal of the concentrated cooling system waste water (blowdown), saline aerosol emissions from cooling towers, cost and reliability of necessary waste water treatment, and difficulty in finding suitable power plant sites in agricultural areas.

• Research Organization: California Energy Commission, Sacramento (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5165730
• Report Number(s): P-300-80-022
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
200101* -- Fossil-Fueled Power Plants-- Cooling & Heat Transfer Equipment & Systems
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290400 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Energy Resources
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320305 -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Industrial & Agricultural Processes-- Industrial Waste Management
AGRICULTURAL WASTES
AGRICULTURE
CALIFORNIA
COOLING
COOLING SYSTEMS
COOLING TOWERS
ELECTRIC UTILITIES
EVALUATION
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INDUSTRY
LIQUID WASTES
NORTH AMERICA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POWER PLANTS
PUBLIC UTILITIES
RESOURCE CONSERVATION
RESOURCE POTENTIAL
SOLID WASTES
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
USA
USES
WASTE PRODUCT UTILIZATION
WASTE WATER
WASTES
WATER
WESTERN REGION