Coal-fired Power Plant In Korea Research Articles

Cancer incidence in relation to residential proximity to coal-fired power plants in Korea

Cancer incidence in relation to residential proximity to coal-fired power plants in Korea

Biosorption of cadmium by Enterobacter ludwigii isolated from soil contaminated with cadmium near a coal-fired power plant in Korea

ABSTRACT This study aimed to isolate and characterize indigenous bacteria from cadmium-contaminated soil around a coal-fired power plant in Korea for their potential use in biosorption. The 16S ribosomal RNA analysis identified Enterobacter ludwigii G17–1 in the soil, exhibiting a remarkably high minimum inhibitory concentration (2,500 mg/L) for cadmium. The efficiency of cadmium biosorption was investigated under different pH levels (6–9), temperatures (15–40°C), and initial cadmium concentrations (25–100 mg/L), using both live and dead G17–1. The live G17–1 strain exhibited a maximum biosorption efficiency of 50% for 25 mg/L cadmium at 24 hours, while the highest efficiency achieved with dead G17–1 was 48% at 1 hour. The biosorption capacity decreased as the initial cadmium concentration increased. These findings suggest that the isolated bacterium, E. ludwigii G17–1, holds potential for the bioremediation of cadmium-contaminated water and wastewater.

An environmentally related policy impact analysis considering wind effect: evidence from suspending old coal-fired generators in South Korea

ABSTRACT This study measures the causal effect of an individual, aged coal-fired generator on PM2.5 concentration. For this, the policy of shutting down old coal-fired power plants in Korea as a quasi-natural experiment was examined. This study adopts the difference-in-differences technique and controls both for wind effects and overseas pollutant effects. The results show that the shut-down policy reduces daily PM2.5 concentration by 2.04–3.65 μg/m3 across the number of generators suspended, and the share of wind effects in the total policy effects is estimated as about 50%. In addition, overseas effects account for about 20% (5.64 μg/m3) of regional PM2.5 concentration on average. These results imply that although the closure of old coal-fired power plants can reduce average PM2.5 concentration, the policy alone is not enough to expect a remarkable improvement in air quality when PM2.5 concentration is high. Thus, these findings suggest that the Korean government must consider domestic policies and cross-border cooperative policies to resolve the high PM2.5 concentration issue.

Exposure assesment of indoor PM2.5 monitoring among local residents near coal-fired power plants in Korea

Exposure assesment of indoor PM2.5 monitoring among local residents near coal-fired power plants in Korea

Treatment of industrial wastewater produced by desulfurization process in a coal-fired power plant via FO-MD hybrid process

In this study, the feasibility of forward osmosis (FO) hybridized with membrane distillation (MD) was systematically investigated for treating flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewater. FO experiments were conducted using raw FGD wastewater obtained from a coal-fired power plant in Korea. Severe membrane fouling in FO was observed since FGD wastewater contained various components (i.e., particles, colloids, organics, and ions). The combined fouling layer by particulates and scales was identified via scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Therefore, fouling control strategies were suggested and evaluated. Microfiltration (MF) pre-treatment was effective in removing particulates and mitigating the initial fouling. Antiscalant-blended draw solution (DS) could inhibit the formation of membrane scaling. With such fouling control schemes, FO achieved the highest recovery rate compared to other desalting processes (i.e., RO and MD), suggesting that FO is suitable for treating wastewater with high fouling potential and high TDS. Finally, the diluted DS was recovered by MD. MD could re-concentrate the diluted DS up to 50% recovery rate with no significant flux decline. Rapid flux decline was then observed due to membrane scaling. Thus, appropriate antiscalants in DS should be considered to inhibit scaling formation in FO and MD simultaneously.

Review on Evaluation of Rare Earth Metals and Rare Valuable Metals Contained in Coal Ash of Coal-fired Power Plants in Korea

Distribution of rare earth metals (REMs) and rare valuable metals (RVMs) contents in coal ashes (fly ash, bottom ash, and pond ash) and leachate from 11 coal-fired power plants in Korea were investigated. Coal ashes and leachates were found to contain important REMs and RVMs such as Yttrium (Y) and Neodymium (Nd), which was in the range of 23~75 mg/kg. However, it still requires developing effective recovery and separation methods in order to utilize REMs and RVMs in ash and leachate. Recovery of valuable elements (Y and Nd) from various and extensive ash sources (8.21 million tons/year in 2013) can provide the existing power plants with additional profit; therefore, it can significantly improve economics of the power plants.

국내 석탄화력발전소 석탄회 중 희유금속 가치 평가

국내 석탄화력발전소 석탄회 중 희유금속 가치 평가

A real-time model based on least squares support vector machines and output bias update for the prediction of NO x emission from coal-fired power plant

The accurate and reliable real-time estimation of NOx emission is indispensable for the implementation of successful control and optimization of NOx emission from a coal-fired power plant. We apply a real-time update scheme to least squares support vector machines (LSSVM) to build a real-time version for real-time prediction of NOx. Incorporation of LSSVM in the update scheme enhances its generalization ability for long-term predictions. The proposed real-time model based on LSSVM (LSSVM-scheme) is applied to NOx emission process data from a coal-fired power plant in Korea to compare the prediction performance of NOx emission with real-time model based on partial least squares (PLS-scheme). Prediction results show that LSSVM-scheme predicts robustly for a long passage of time with higher accuracy in comparison with PLS-scheme. We also present a user friendly and sophisticated graphical user interface to enhance the convenience to approach the features of real-time LSSVM-scheme.

Test Operation Results of the 10 MWe-scale Dry-sorbent CO2 Capture Process Integrated with a Real Coal-fired Power Plant in Korea

Abstract The ground-breaking ceremony of the10 MWe-scale dry-sorbent CO2 capture process was held in August 2012 and the construction was finished in October 2013. It was integrated with a 500 MW power plant and used a slip-stream of that, located at the Hadong coal-fired power plant (Unit #8), Korea Southern Power Company. From October 2013, Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), Korea Southern Power Company, and KC Cottrell have executed the test operations in order to find out the optimal operational conditions and several modification parts to achieve the target project goals of the 10 MWe-scale dry-sorbent CO2 capture technology. The dry-sorbents have been developed by KEPCO Research Institute and massively produced and supplied by TODA-ISU, which consists of 35 wt.% of active components for the CO2 sorption and 65 wt.% of supporters for the mechanical strength. The some portions of the dry-sorbents have been tested at the 0.5 MWe-scale dry-sorbent CO2 capture process in order to analyze the sorbent performance through the two-week operation campaign in June 2013. During the test operations, the 10 MWe-scale dry-sorbent CO2 capture process has been divided into four parts such as a sorbent handling part, a flue gas pre-treatment part, a main reactor part, a utility (steam, cooling water, and instrument air) part. In the sorbent handling part, the sorbent feeding system has been tested so that the sorbent has automatically fed to the reactor system and conversely fed to the sorbent silo. In the flue gas pre-treatment part, main blower, the secondary flue gas desulfurization, and the moisture control of the flue gas have been tested. In the main reactor part, the solid hold-up in the carbonation reactor, the solid circulation rate, control concept, and the reaction performance of the sorbent have been tested. In the utility part, steam supply, cooling tower operation, and instrument air compressor operation have been tested. The test operations will be done on January 2014 and the long-term continuous operations will be performed from early March 2014. We plan to continuously operate the 10 MWe-scale dry-sorbent CO2 capture process from the second quarter of this year, to analyze the economics of the dry-sorbent CO2 capture technology based on the operational results, and to finish FEED of the 300 MWe-scale dry-sorbent CO2 capture technology until the end of the third quarter of this year.

A Study on the Measurement of Whole-Body Vibration in Some Coal-fired Power Plant Workers

Objective: This study measured and evaluated the characteristics of the whole body vibration experienced in some coal-fired power plant in Korea. Background: Few studies have been carried out in Korea about the effects of whole body vibration of power plants on humans. Method: The evaluation scheme suggested by the Law of Noise and Vibration Control was applied. Results: It was found that 28.9% of total measurement points were above the limit suggested by the law. Conclusion: Many workers are exposed to whole body vibration during their job completion, and more efforts should be applied to prevention and control of the plat vibration.

석탄 잔사회 및 바닥재가 포함된 인공경량골재의 발포특성에 미치는 활성탄소의 영향

화력발전소에서 배출되는 석탄 바닥재 및 잔사회는 재활용이 힘든 폐자원이어서 주로 매립 처분되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 국내 화력발전소에서 배출된 석탄 잔사회, 바닥재 그리고 준설토를 혼합하여 인공골재를 제조하고, 실험인자가 골재의 발포거동 및 물성에 미치는 영향을 분석하였다. 특히 미연탄소가 많이 포함되어 있는 잔사회에 대하여 하소 처리를 한 뒤, 인위적으로 활성탄소를 첨가함으로서 하소유무 및 활성탄소 첨가량이 인공골재의 발포특성에 미치는 영향을 조사하였다. 이를 위해 인공골재의 부피비중 및 흡수율 값을 시편의 미세구조 관찰 결과와 연계하여 고찰함으로서, 잔사회의 재활용율 제고에 일조하고자 하였다. The coal bottom ash and reject ash discharged from a coal-fired power plant are difficult to recycle so most of them are mainly landfill-disposed. In this study, the artificial aggregate were produced using reject ash, bottom ash and dredged soil emitted from the coal-fired power plant in Korea and the effect of experimental factors on the bloating behavior and the properties of the aggregates were analyzed. In particular, a lot of unburned carbon in the reject ash was removed by calcination and the activated carbon was added to batch powders then the dependence of those process upon bloating properties of artificial aggregate were investigated. For this purpose, the specific gravity and water absorption values of artificial aggregates were investigated in conjunction with microstructural observations. This study could contribute to increase the recycling rate of the reject ash.

The Status of the Development Project for the 10 MWe-Scale Dry-sorbent Carbon Dioxide Capture System to the real Coal-Fired Power Plant in Korea

Carbon dioxide capture system using dry regenerable K-based sorbents has been developed by Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) and Korea Electric Power Research Institute (KEPRI). In late 2009, we installed a 0.5 MWe-scale CO2 capture pilot plant at Hadong coal-fired power plant in Korea. The pilot plant consists of a transport fluidized-bed carbonator for CO2 sorption, cyclones for separating gas and solid, a bubbling fluidized-bed regenerator for sorbent regeneration, and a bubbling fluidized-bed sorbent cooler for sorbent cooling. The footprint of the pilot plant was 6 m x 10 m and the location of that was after Gas Gas Heater of the power plant. Until now, we have performed 100-day operation campaigns to find out the optimum operating conditions and the scale-up factors for 10 MWe-scale capture process. In the operation campaigns, several operating variables such as the moisture content in the flue gas, the solid hold-up in a carbonator, the solid circulation rate between a carbonator and a regenerator, and the reaction temperatures have been changed in order to investigate the effect of those variables on CO2 capture and to derive the scale-up factors. It has been proved that above 80% of CO2 removal for 50-hour continuous operation was possible at the optimum operating conditions.At the same time, we set the small scale unit which consists of two bubbling beds for carbonation and regeneration in order to investigate the effect of the H2O partial pressure in the regenerator on CO2 removal. The CO2 removal in the carbonator increased as the steam mole fraction in the fluidization gas of the regenerator increased, although the content of H2O, which is a product component in the regenerator, increased. We proved that the K2CO3 1.5H2O has been formed in the regenerator by the XRD analysis and TGA analysis of the regenerated sorbent. The formation of K2CO3 1.5H2O makes the carbonation reaction more active so that the CO2 removal increased. It is also verified that high-concentrated CO2 can be recovered when 100% of H2O has been introduced as a steam phase to the regenerator. Thus, we also install the steam injection line to the regenerator in the 0.5 MWe-scale pilot plant. During 100-day operation campaign, we also tested high-concentrated CO2 recovery by introducing 100% of H2O as a steam phase to the regenerator.

Demonstration of pilot scale carbon dioxide capture system using dry regenerable sorbents to the real coal-fired power plant in Korea

Abstract Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) and Korea Electric Power Research Institute (KEPRI) have developed the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) capture system using dry regenerable sorbents since 2002. The principle of the CO 2 capture with regenerable solid sorbents is the reversible reaction between potassium carbonate and potassium bicarbonate in a thermal-swing process. Based on this reaction, we developed a bench scale unit (BSU) which treated 100 Nm 3 /h of flue gas in late 2006. The BSU consisted of a transport fluidized-bed carbonator, cyclones, a loop-seal, and a bubbling fluidized-bed regenerator. We have tested the BSU facility using a slip stream of the real flue gas from a coal-fired circulating fluidized bed combustor located at KIER in order to check the performance of CO 2 removal, the stability of operation. The results showed that more than 80% of CO 2 removal had been maintained during more than 50 hour continuous operation and its maximum reached at the 85% level. Those results indicated that the CO 2 capture system using solid sorbents developed here could be applied to coal-fired power plant. In the meanwhile, we set the small scale unit which consists of two bubbling beds for carbonation and regeneration in order to investigate the effect of several operating variables on the CO 2 removal. The performance of the small scale unit was investigated through the continuous operation with solid circulation under the same experimental conditions as the BSU facility. The CO 2 removal of the small scale unit was reached at the 83% level with the inlet CO 2 concentration of 10 vol.%. The CO 2 removal increased as the water vapor content in the inlet flue gas stream, regeneration temperature, and solid circulation rate increased while it decreased as the gas velocity of the carbonator and carbonation temperature increased. It was found that the performance of the CO 2 removal was very sensitive to the water vapor content in the inlet gas stream and the gas velocity of the carbonator (gas-solid contact time in the carbonator). The construction of 0.5 MW scale pilot plant based on the results of BSU at KIER has been finished in late 2009 at the Hadong Coal-Fired Power Plant, Korea Southern Power Company. The overall performance of pilot plant showed very promising and its CO 2 capture performance reached at the 85% level. A 10 MW scale CO 2 capture plant next development step after 0.5 MWe at the Hadong Coal-Fired Power Plant will be started to construct at the same site in late 2011.

Greenhouse gas emission factor development for coal-fired power plants in Korea

Accurate estimation of greenhouse gas emissions is essential for developing an appropriate strategy to mitigate global warming. This study examined the characteristics of greenhouse gas emission from power plants, a major greenhouse gas source in Korea. The power plants examined use bituminous coal, anthracite, and sub-bituminous coal as fuel. The CO 2 concentration from power plants was measured using GC–FID with methanizer. The amount of carbon, hydrogen, and calorific values in the input fuel was measured using an elemental analyzer and calorimeter. For fuel analysis, CO 2 emission factors for anthracite, bituminous coal, and sub-bituminous coal were 108.9, 88.4, and 97.9 Mg/kJ, respectively. The emission factors developed in this study were compared with those for IPCC. The results showed that CO 2 emission was 10.8% higher for anthracite, 5.5% lower for bituminous coal, and 1.9% higher for sub-bituminous coal than the IPCC figures.

Mercury emission trend influenced by stringent air pollutants regulation for coal-fired power plants in Korea

Regulatory control of mercury emission from anthropogenic sources has become a global concern in the recent past. Coal-fired power plants are one of the largest sources of anthropogenic mercury emission into the atmosphere. This paper summarizes the current reducing trend of mercury emission as co-beneficial effect by more stringent regulation changes to control primary air pollutants with introducing test results from the commercial coal-fired facilities and suggesting a guideline for future regulatory development in Korea. On average, mercury emission concentrations ranged 16.3–2.7 μg Sm −3, 2.4–1.1 μg Sm −3, 3.1–0.7 μg Sm −3 from anthracite coal-fired power plants equipped with electrostatic precipitator (ESP), bituminous coal-fired power plants with ESP + flue gas desulphurization (FGD) and bituminous coal-fired power plants with selective catalytic reactor (SCR) + cold side (CS) − ESP + wet FGD, respectively. Among the existing air pollution control devices, the best configuration for mercury removal in coal-fired power plants was SCR + CS − ESP + wet FGD, which were installed due to the stringent regulation changes to control primary air pollutants emission such as SO 2, NOx and dust. It was estimated that uncontrolled and controlled mercury emission from coal-fired power plants as 10.3 ton yr −1 and 3.2 ton yr −1 respectively. After the installation of ESP, FGD and SCR system, following the enforcement of the stringent regulation, 7.1 ton yr −1 of mercury emission has been reduced (nearly 69%) from coal-fired power plants as a co-benefit control. Based on the overall study, a sample guideline including emission limits were suggested which will be applied to develop a countermeasure for controlling mercury emission from coal-fired power plants.

Study on Mercury Exposure of Primary School Children Near by Coal-Fired Power Plants in Korea

ISEE-713 Objective: Mercury is highly toxic and may be fatal if inhaled. It is harmful if absorbed through the skin or consumed with food. Mercury may cause harmful effects to the neural, digestive, respiratory, immune systems, and kidney on human health. This study was conducted to study the influence of existing coal-fired power plant, which is known to emit mercury artificially, on body mercury concentration levels, using biological samples of elementary school students who live in and around the coal-fired power plant area and control area. Materials and Methods: The mercury concentrations of children who live near the power plant were investigated to survey the influence of coal-fired combustion on the exposure. 3 main power plant areas and 4 control areas were selected for the investigation. Mercury analyzer using gold amalgam collection method with thermal decomposition was used. Total mercury analysis in the whole blood and urine samples and questionnaire information about the subjects’ dietary habit were analyzed as well. Results: The exposure levels of children in power plant area were 2.13 μg, 1.84 μg-creatinine in blood and urine respectively. Those of children in control area were 2.20 μg, 2.47 μg-creatinine. Different from general presumption, mercury level in control area was higher. Any obvious evidences that emissions from the power plants influenced on the mercury exposure level were not found out. Conclusions: On this study, several investigations related to health effects were conducted to evaluate the influence of mercury exposure but any special evidences were not found. Food-related factors such as preference for fish and frequency of fish intake were found to be the main sources of mercury exposure in domestic children.