New Features

Commercial Experience with Concrete-Friendly Mercury Sorbents
May 29, 2009 | By Daryl Lipscomb, Ron Landreth, Yinzhi Zhang, Emma Zhou, and Sid Nelson Jr.
Commonly, 20% of the cement (by weight) in a concrete mix is replaced by fly ash. Fly ash enhances the workability, durability, and ultimate strength of concrete at a lower cost than cement. However, mercury sorbents can change the ash properties to make it unsuitable as a concrete additive. New “concrete-friendly” sorbents can keep the revenues from ash sales flowing. More »

Better Combustion Airflow Monitoring at the Hunan Yiyang Power Plant
May 29, 2009 | By Scott Rouse
Measuring combustion airflow in a coal-fired power plant can be problematic when using annubar instruments that feature small holes that can easily plug with coal dust. Sierra Instruments eliminates this big maintenance headache with its more-accurate, nonplugging thermal mass flow meter design. More »

A New Era in Power Plant Control Performance
May 29, 2009 | By K. Wendelberger, and B. Meerbeck, and B. Lamb
Recent improvements in the performance of steam power plants have been achieved with advanced computerized controls. These new control schemes not only reduce fuel consumption and make the plant much more responsive, but they also can significantly decrease start-up commissioning time and cost. More »

EPA Preparing Regulations for Coal Plant Ash
May 29, 2009 | Johnathan Rickman
New coal-fired power plant ash management regulations appear to be inevitable, perhaps as soon as year-end. The Tennessee Valley Authority and Edison Electric Institute are on board with new regulations, as long as the ash is regulated as a nonhazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. More »

UK Sets Binding Carbon Cuts; Requires CCS at Coal Plants
May 29, 2009 | By George Lobsenz
The UK has all but doomed new coal-fired capacity by simultaneously setting binding carbon reduction goals and by requiring carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) of carbon emissions from new  mid-size coal-fired power plants. Existing plants will also be required to retrofit their plants when CCS technology is demonstrated, now estimated to happen by 2020. More »

FirstEnergy Retools Coal Plant to Burn Biomass
May 29, 2009 | By Chris Holly
FirstEnergy has announced plans to repower two coal-fired units at the R.E. Burger plant to burn biomass. Conversion of the two units, expected to be completed by 2012, gets the utility off the hot seat with the EPA for alleged Clean Air Act violations. More »