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Promising technology?

Promising technology?

RE: Promising technology?

I think that this item consumes a lot of power.  

Installing a scrubber, and an SCR will remove 90% mercury, 90% NOx and 90% SO2.  Through on a bag house and you got the PM2.5 taken care of too, with less of a parasitic load.

RE: Promising technology?

No, it is not so simple. The simplified flow diagram leaves off many process steps including the dewatering and material handling steps. Selection of an FGD process would also have to consider the cost of raw materials, product value, as well as capital cost.

This technology is not much different than what Marsulex is already doing. Marsulex has already commercialized the process and has actual installations. Marsulex also has other competing FGD processes for evaluation.

http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/05/NOx_SO2/SO2%20Presentations/Tech_Marsulex.pdf

I don't think Powerspan has an actual installation of any FGD process. FirstEnergy by the way is the company that was criticized for being responsible for that major electrical blackout in the northeast US a few years ago.

RE: Promising technology?

(OP)
Good link bimr.

You are reading another thread in this forum where I state that there are not a lot of coal fired plants in the area, and among them, there are fewer FGD systems. So while FGD towers are rare around here, I do deal with companies who are heavily involved in FGD, SCR, DeNox, etc. systems, but only in a perifial way, so I haven't typically done a lot of digging into that topic.

And, the FGD systems that I am familiar with among my clients aren't even into Gypsum production.  They are on lignite, not coal.

I'll give you a star for that one.

rmw

RE: Promising technology?

Many states are looking very closely at industrial byproducts being sold as fertilizer.  Problems in Washington state in the late 90's were well-publisized (google "fear in the fields').  California and Washington came out with new regulations that are pretty tight on heavy metals, etc.

Ammonium sulphate fertilizer can come in nice white crystals if it's made from sulfuric acid and ammonia.  Some of the ammonium sulfate from industrial processes looks like black dirt, with poor size control and much dust. It wouldn't command as high a price.

As far as selling gypsum as a fertilizer, it's not a moneymaker.  The US farm locations that need it have nearby gypsum mines that supply the small demand quite nicely.  Freight costs are a showstopper.

Just my $0.02.

RE: Promising technology?

From my environmental Guru:

In the 1970's technologies arose for the production of fertilizers from the sulfur oxides and nitrogen, in that time the gases could not be cleaned of the UHC's and now in the past decade with cleaning technologies, these fertilizer technologies have been realized but with the high costs associated to clean the gases of UHC's.

The quantity of ammonium sulphate that can be produced by a refinery or thermo-electric station burning 5,000 bbl/day of heavy fuel oil containing 5% sulphur is 162.27 Ton/day.

Daily consumption of fuel 5,000 barriles (793,410 Kg.)

Density    0.998 gr/cm3

Sulfur content    5 % (39,670 Kg.)

The sulfur reacts in the furnace with oxygen and forms sulfur dioxide.

Sulfur dioxide (79,340 Kg.)

S + O2 -------SO2
32  32            64

The sulfur dioxide of the combustion gases reacts with the ammonia solution

Ammonium Sulfite (143,600 Kg.)

SO2 + H2O + 2(NH3)------(NH4)2SO3
64     18    34             116

Ammonium Sulfate (162,270 Kg.)

(NH4)2SO3 + ½ O2---------(NH4)2SO4            
116           16        132

It is good if it does not mean spending big downstream dollars to cleanup gases...

The process technologies developed for cleaning of the gases of combustion and their level of advancement are:

PROCESS                                 DEVELOPMENT STAGE
COMINCO                                    COMMERCIAL
INSTITUT INORGANIC CHEMISTRY, CHEK    COMMERCIAL
IPRAN, RUMANIA                            COMMERCIAL
SHOWADENKO, JAPÓN                    PROTOTYPE
NIIOGAZ, RUSIA                            COMMERCIAL
KUHLMAN ELECTRICITE DE FRANCE            PROTOTYPO
INSTITUT FRANCAIS DU PETROLE            PROTOTYPO
TVA – EPA                            PILOT PROJECT

The technology of catalytic combustion, allowing 99% combustion of the product makes it possible to clean the combustion gases. The gases react with a solution of ammonia to produce fertilizers. The products obtained are ammonium sulphate, nitrites and nitrates of ammonia and ammonium bicarbonate.

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