Operation of Sunbury Steam-Electric Station Using Pulverized-Anthracite Fuel

Abstract

Abstract The largest deposits of anthracite in the United States are located in north and central eastern Pennsylvania. Only a few central stations burn this type of fuel, and prior to World War II those stations able economically to justify its use, were relatively small in size. Pennsylvania Power & Light Company, whose service area includes a large segment of the anthracite region, is a pioneer in the burning of anthracite and is the largest single consumer of this fuel in the United States, having burned 2,325,500 net tons in 1951. During 1949 this company completed the installation of four 400,000 lb per hr steam generators at Sunbury Steam Electric Station located between Shamokin Dam and Hummels Wharf on the Susquehanna River near Sunbury, Pa. This paper presents the design features peculiar to the handling, pulverizing, and burning of anthracite, as well as some of the problems encountered during the first 3 years of operation. Reference is also made to a third unit, placed in service in 1951, which burns a mixture of anthracite and bituminous coal and a fourth unit, in the process of construction, which will employ the reheat cycle and also will burn an anthracite-bituminous coal mixture.