Chapter 4: Improve Coal Quality
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4. Improve Coal Quality 4. Improve Coal Quality1 1. Profile specifying coal quality in purchasing contracts, even if higher quality coal is more expensive. Even before the ower plant boilers are designed to accommodate establishment of environmental requirements for coal a range of types of coal but, within this quality, operators of coal-fired power plants voluntarily range, variations in coal properties can affect established standards and specifications for the fuel they performance and efficiency. A boiler designed to purchased so they would be able to effectively operate their Pburn a high rank bituminous coal is going to perform quite boilers and minimize the amount of time the boilers had differently if lower rank sub-bituminous coal is introduced, to be taken off-line for maintenance. Boilers are typically and properties such as high ash or sulfur content can designed and constructed based on a specification coal or impair not only the thermal performance of the boiler, but range of specification coals that the purchaser intends to also associated duct work and virtually all boiler auxiliary use as its fuel, such as that secured for a long-term purchase systems, including sootblowing, forced and induced agreement with a given mine or group of mines. Once a draft systems, steam temperature control, bottom and fly boiler is constructed and in operation, owner/operators will ash removal, pulverizers, and primary air, secondary air, typically continue to specify fuel coals to be compatible burners, and combustion controls.2 Air permit conditions with the design characteristics of their boiler and boiler for new or modified boilers specify fuel type and quality, auxiliaries and any associated regulatory requirements. and require fuel sampling in order to bind the range of Alternatively, the owners/operators may make the decision potential emissions that are associated with variations to purchase off-spec fuels that they can live with to provide in these parameters. Off-design fuels can affect boiler an economic advantage, assuming there are no regulatory performance and efficiency. requirements that influence those decisions. Higher ash content in coal affects every piece of plant Some coal processing may be required for an as-mined equipment that handles and processes coal, such as coal to meet the specifications of purchasers.3 To maintain conveyors, pulverizers, crushers, storage, and so forth. The coal quality within specified ranges and meet boiler increased load on this equipment also increases auxiliary performance objectives, coals with different properties can power consumption; that is, the quantity of plant-site be blended, either by the coal producer or at a power plant. energy needed simply to operate the plant, which reduces Another option for meeting coal quality specifications the quantity of electricity that can be transmitted for sale, is through “beneficiation.” Coal beneficiation is the thus increasing the plant’s operating costs and decreasing industry’s term for any of several processes and treatments its profit potential. that improve coal quality. The most common of these Plant operators understand that there are benefits from beneficiation processes is “coal washing.” 1 Adapted from James, C., & Gerhard, J. (2013, February). the Alstom boiler specification sheet available at: http://www. International Best Practices Regarding Coal Quality. Montpelier, alstom.com/Global/Power/Resources/Documents/Brochures/ VT: The Regulatory Assistance Project. Available at: www. pulverised-coal-boiler-tower-type-boilers.pdf. raponline.org/document/download/id/6438 3 The Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research. (2009). 2 The trend toward increased use of Powder River Basin coals, Meeting Projected Coal Production Demands in the USA: Upstream even in the Eastern United States, has led to newer boilers Issues, Challenges, and Strategies. Prepared for the National being designed to operate within broader ranges of fuel types Commission on Energy Policy. Chapter 4 (Coal Preparation). and quality. Tangentially fired boilers can also accommodate Available at: http://www.energy.vt.edu/ncepstudy/outline/ a broader range of fuel types and quality. See, for example, Coal_Production_Demands_Chapter4.pdf. 4-1 Implementing EPA’s Clean Power Plan: A Menu of Options Beneficiation results in a variety of improvements to maximum fifty five per cent passing one quarter inch power plant operations that directly affect the profitability square wire cloth sieve to be determined basis the of a coal plant, its emissions and ability to meet primary cutter of the mechanical sampling system environmental requirements, and its ability to avoid future (A.S.T.M. D4749)5” [sic] economic risks. In particular, coal washing can dramatically reduce the sulfur and ash content of coal, resulting in Under these kinds of contractual arrangements, quality a significant reduction in air emissions, a reduction in standards are enforced by the parties to the contract, auxiliary power demand, and a number of other co- with recourse to the appropriate judicial body in cases of benefits. disputes over performance.6 2. Regulatory Backdrop 3. State and Local Implementation Experiences Coal quality standards are typically implemented through state or local construction and operating permits Coal specifications were utilized for the design of water and via language in procurement contracts. tube boilers in the mid to late 1800s and were in place There are several ways in which quality control for some of the early steam electric stations that were requirements can be specified in a permit. For example, in operation prior to 1900. More than a hundred years the source’s operating permit may specify a maximum ash ago, the United States government adopted coal quality content and a maximum sulfur content for coal burned in specifications for the coal it purchases.7 In the years since, a boiler. These conditions are typically enforced through quality specifications have become an industry norm and sampling, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements. essentially all purchasers of coal, including those who Although air permit limitations are important for use it to generate electricity, have experience with such regulatory purposes, contractual arrangements between the specifications. seller of the coal and the purchaser are the primary means Coal beneficiation has been a common practice for by which commercial quality control is established. One meeting coal quality specifications across the United example of contractual standards for coal quality comes States. However, coal beneficiation is most economical and from the New York Mercantile Exchange. Under standard beneficial today when applied to fuel that will be burned in New York Mercantile Exchange rules, there are a number a pulverized boiler. Less coal washing occurs in the United of coal quality specifications; for example, the following are States today than in the 1980s and 1990s owing to: specifications for Central Appalachian Coal: • increased use of fluidized bed boilers; Coal delivered under this contract shall meet the • increased availability of coal from the Powder River following quality specifications on an as-received basis [as- Basin; Powder River Basin coal has a relatively low received does not refer to subsections (6) and (7)]: ash content of five to six percent, is also lower in 1. BTU4: Minimum 12,000 BTU/lb, gross calorific sulfur than Appalachian coal, and is mined almost value, with an analysis tolerance of 250 btu/lb below exclusively through longwall or opentop extraction, (A.S.T.M. D1989) 2. Ash: Maximum 13.50%, with no analysis tolerance 4 A BTU is the amount of heat required to increase the (A.S.T.M. D3174 or D5142) (3) Sulfur: Maximum temperature of a pint of water (which weighs exactly 16 1.00%, with an analysis tolerance of 0.050% above ounces) by one degree Fahrenheit. (A.S.T.M. D4239) 5 CME Group. (2012). NYMEX Rulebook: Chapter 260 – 3. Moisture: Maximum 10.00%, with no analysis Central Appalachian Coal Futures. Available at: http://www. tolerance (A.S.T.M. D3302 or D5142) cmegroup.com/rulebook/NYMEX/2/260.pdf. 4. Volatile Matter: Minimum 30.00%, with no analysis 6 Contracts generally specify the method of resolving conflicts, tolerance (A.S.T.M. D5142 or D3175) as well as the adjudicatory body and jurisdiction. 5. Grindability: Minimum 41 Hardgrove Index (HGI) 7 Pope, G. (1910). Purchase of Coal by the Government under with three-point analysis tolerance below (A.S.T.M. Specifications: with Analyses for Coal Delivered in the Fiscal Year D409) 1908-09. Government Printing Office. Available at: http:// 6. Sizing: “Three inches topsize, nominal, with pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0428/report.pdf. 4-2 4. Improve Coal Quality which optimizes the amount of coal that can be 10,000 BTU per kilowatt hour (kWh), burning bituminous removed per unit of labor; coal. Their results indicate that a heat rate improvement to • increased coal prices – boilers (including pulverized 9890 BTU/kWh, that is, a one-percent increase in boiler coal boilers) were designed and/or modified with efficiency, can be achieved through coal washing.8 Each more flexibility to operate acceptably with the lower one-percent increase in boiler thermal efficiency can in turn 9 quality, less expensive coals; and decrease CO2 emissions by two to three percent. These • utilization of new or improved emissions controls that results will vary depending on the specific fuel combusted; allowed the use of lower quality/lower cost coals while plants burning lower quality coals are likely to have still meeting air emissions requirements. more potential to improve thermal efficiency.10 The Asian Thus, it is often possible for coal quality specifications to Development Bank (ADB) conducted an extensive survey of be met without requiring any coal beneficiation techniques. the Indian coal industry in the 1990s and found that for each Air pollution regulators in virtually all states will be 10-percent reduction in ash content, thermal efficiency can familiar with the practice of limiting the sulfur and ash be improved by up to six percent, with an average of one to content of coal in power plant operating permits.