Electric utility CWS firing options to reduce NOx emissions
There are some two billion tons of coal fines located in impoundments in the East and Midwest regions of the United States. Further, some 50 million additional tons of fines are added to these impoundments each year 1. The ponded coal fines are a byproduct stream from coal cleaning plants. Pond coal typically has a size range of minus 1/8 inches and smaller and contains some 25 to 50 wt% ash. These coal fines represent a huge energy resource, enough fuel to generate 3,600 MWe of electricity every hour for the next 100 years. The coal impoundments also represent an environmental liability and in some cases a safety hazard (for example, the dike wall failure at Buffalo Creek, West Virginia in 1972). Coal pond fines recovery is of interest to the electric utilities and the state and federal environmental control agencies for the following reasons: (1) there is a significant fuel resource in these ponds that in many cases could provide a low cost fuel to an electric utility, (2) the use of this fuel resource will reduce the number of impoundments and thus eliminate certain environmental liability and safety concerns with such impoundments, and (3) these impoundment sites could be put to more productive use. The elimination of the need for new impoundments also would reduce the cost of coal preparation (greater coal yields/ton of coal processed) whether at the mine site or power plant.
- Research Organization:
- Coal and Slurry Technology Association, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 585378
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-980309--PROC.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Electric utility CWS firing options to reduce NOx emissions
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