Electric Power Research Institute: Environmental Control Technology Center.

Abstract

Operations and maintenance continued this month at the Electric Power Research Institute`s (EPRI`s) Environmental Control Technology Center (ECTC). Testing for the month involved the completion of the Clear Liquor Scrubbing with Anhydrite Production test block extension. Also, the test plan for July (Dry Sorbent Injection with the Carbon Injection System) was developed and reconfiguration activities were initiated. The 1.0 MW Cold-Side Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) unit and the 0.4 MW Mini-Pilot Wet Scrubber remained idle this month in a cold-standby mode and were inspected regularly. These units remain available for testing as future project work is identified. In June 1997, the extension to the Anhydrite Production test block was completed. The extended Anhydrite test block was funded by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) after reviewing the promising results from the original test program. Both EPRI and the Department of Energy (DOE) funded the original PRDA test program as part of the DOE`s Advanced Power Systems Program, whose mission is to accelerate the commercialization of affordable, high-efficiency, low-emission, coal-fueled electric generating technologies. The project is designed to develop an advanced FGD process that produces a usable byproduct, anhydrite (anhydrous calcium sulfate). While the pilot portion of the Anhydrite PRDA project was conducted on the 4-MW wet FGD pilot unit at EPRI`s Environmental Control Technology Center (ECTC) in Barker, New York, the extension testing mainly used the 0.4 MW wet FGD pilot unit to reduce operating costs. As discussed in previous progress reports, the original CLS/Anhydrite process included three steps: chloride removal, clear liquor scrubbing, and anhydrite production. The final step in the process involved sending the calcium sulfite slurry from the sludge bed reactor to the anhydrite reaction tank for conversion to anhydrous calcium sulfate (anhydrite). The original objective in the PRDA project was to demonstrate all three areas of the integrated process. However, the primary focus has been on anhydrite production because: (1) The anhydrite process is the least developed and potentially most valuable of the three proposed processes; (2) The initial anhydrite tests on the pilot unit were encouraging; and, (3) The DOE has placed emphasis on the reuse of byproduct materials.