Calculation method for dynamic carbon emission factors of thermal power plants based on coupling of energy flow and carbon flow

Today's power systems rely on "peaker plants" to reliably serve load during peak demand periods. In this study we consider the present competitiveness of different peaking options, how much and what kinds of plants have provided U.S. peaking capacity, and potential future peaking fleet compositions. We explore how capital intensity impacts the breakeven capacity factor between two potential resources: combustion turbines (CTs) and combined cycle plants (CCs). CTs outcompete CCs below 12%-17% annual capacity factor at today's prices, but can shift with changes to fuel or start costs. Historically, gas CTs and petroleum steam plants most closely fit the role of peakers. Peaking capacity could grow from approximately 280 GW today to 460-770 GW in 2050 composed of a wider range of resources. We conclude by discussing implications of this shift, with a focus on the potential planning considerations for shifting to a greater utilization of CCs for peaking needs.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are long-lasting organic pollutants which have toxic, mutagenic, and carcinogenic effects, making them of significant concern for both environmental and human health. This study determined the PAH levels in soils around the Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power Plant, Khedar, Hisar (Haryana, India). Among 16 USEPA PAHs, 9 were detected. Descriptive statistics used in the study revealed that the concentration of Σ9PAHs in soils varied from 3354 to 44,648μgkg-1 with a mean of 7513.51μgkg-1. Diagnostic ratios (LMW/HMW = 0.61) revealed the prevalence of high-molecular-weight (HMW) PAHs, which validated a signature of combustion. The correlation patterns suggested a common pyrogenic source for most of the PAHs, with DahA suggesting another, sporadic one. PCA revealed two major source categories, coal-fired emissions and traffic contributions. Overall, the study reveals that 39 soil samples collected from the agricultural lands around the thermal power plant are dominated by high-molecular-weight PAHs. The lack of a big traffic route, as well as industrial activities in the area, indicates little impact from other sources. As a result, the PAH profile is primarily explained by pyrogenic sources, which can be attributed to the emissions from the thermal power plant. The ecological and carcinogenicity risks of PAHs in soils surrounding the RGTPP area were assessed by applying the risk quotient approach and the toxic equivalency approach. Some of the PAHs had risk levels above safe levels, and when they are combined, the ecological threat is very high. There is an imperative necessity for strategic management and remediation of the PAH polluted soil in the surroundings of RGTPP.

ABSTRACT To address the need for background temperature calculation in studies on the environmental impacts of thermal discharge from coastal power plants and the limitations of traditional methods in characterizing regional temperature distribution, this study proposes a novel method for calculating background temperature, namely the Offshore Thermal Gradient Exponential Fitting Method (OTGEM). Based on 47 remote sensing images (2015–2024), OTGEM establishes 30 m-interval SST gradient strips to fit offshore water temperature natural gradient curves, linking with in-situ SST via characteristic parameters and reference points for precise calculation. Applied to Fujian Hongshan Thermal Power Plant and Ningde Nuclear Power Plant’s distinct coastlines, results show obvious offshore temperature gradients (inner-outer differences ∼ 0.9°C and 1.5°C, respectively) and tidal-phase-related variations. Error analysis indicated maximum average error ≤ 1°C within 4 km offshore: errors > 0.5°C are confined to 0.24–0.5 km nearshore sea area, ≤ 0.4°C in 0.5–1 km, and <0.2°C beyond 1 km. In conclusion, OTGEM dynamically reflects flood and ebb tides’ real-time impact, delivering regional characteristics, highly accurate results with low data demands and simple operation, suitable for diverse coastal scenarios like open coast areas and semi-enclosed bays.

Wind field effects on slope deviation of heliostat in solar thermal power plants: Mechanisms and prediction methods

Dynamic performance and economic viability analysis of distributed solar thermal-power plants: Thermocline storage integration and multi-technology scheme comparison

Energy is the foremost backbone of modern society of the world and the electric power from thermal power stations is a major source of energy, in the form of electricity. India stands sixth in energy demand and depends on thermal power plants for its major energy needs. About 70% of energy consumption is from the thermal power plants, which in turn produces coal combustion products (CCP) as by-products, as they burn coal for energy production. Coal ash consist of fly ash and bottom ash. Bottom ash establishes 20% of total coal fed in the boiler. There have been numerous investigations on the use of fly ash as construction materials but when it comes to bottom ash, it is very few.It is now a global concern, to find a social, economical and environmental friendly solution to sustain a cleaner and greener environment. Today Study has been conducted to recycle valuable material and reduce the volume of hazardous solid waste and other pollutants, which is harmful for living organisms. The use of Coal Fired Bottom ash and Sugarcane Bagasse Ash can improve various properties in fresh and hardened state of concrete and alsodecreases the cost of construction.

Plate and shell-and-tube heat exchangers are widely used in the chemical and food industries, as well as in nuclear and thermal power generation. Physical and chemical phenomena such as sedimentation, crystallization, chemical reactions, corrosion, and biofouling, which occur during heat exchange processes, reduce heat transfer rates. They form solid deposits, and foul the internal tubes of heat exchangers, which is an extremely critical factor for industrial production and can lead to unprecedented financial losses. Purpose. To determine the most promising directions for developing methods for cleaning shell-and-tube heat exchangers for nuclear, thermal power plants, and other industrial applications based on determining the current state of technological processes for high-performance cleaning of contaminated heat exchangers. Methodology. Theoretical and experimental data are studied, obtained during the development of methods for cleaning the internal surfaces of heat exchangers, and presented in various scientific and technical sources of information. Findings. The results are presented by comparing the nature of technological processes and the effectiveness of methods for cleaning the internal surfaces of heat exchangers, as well as assessing the influence of certain coatings on increasing the service life of internal pipelines. Originality. The conducted analysis of methods for cleaning the internal surfaces of heat exchangers, as well as the impact of coatings on extending the service life of internal pipelines, allowed us to: - identify progressive technologies for cleaning contaminated heat exchangers used in the energy sector and various industries; - establish methods for determining the effectiveness of new and proven technologies, such as ultrasonic vibrations of the cleaning fluid; - summarize assessments of the impact of various treatments (chemical and vibrational) on the quality of cleaning heat exchanger tubes. Practical value. A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of potential research approaches to improving heat exchanger cleaning methods will enable the selection of the most promising ones for solving practical problems in improving cleaning technologies for specific heat exchanger designs.

INTRODUCTION: With the growing energy demand, the Integrated Energy System (IES) has attracted wide attention for its high efficiency, economy, and environmental friendliness. Compared with traditional energy systems, IES realizes multi-energy complementarity through the coupling of electricity, heat, gas, and hydrogen. International research focuses on market mechanisms, renewable energy integration, and digital technologies, but issues such as wind-solar output uncertainty and fair benefit distribution in multi-party cooperation remain to be addressed. OBJECTIVES: This paper aims to construct an optimal operation and dispatching model for IES integrating renewable energy, gas-fired thermal power plants, and carbon capture power plants, handle wind-solar output uncertainty, and design a fair benefit distribution mechanism based on Nash bargaining theory to balance economy and environmental protection and maintain cooperation enthusiasm. Compared with traditional methods such as the Shapley value, which allocates benefits based on marginal contributions, the Nash bargaining approach emphasizes fair negotiation outcomes and better accommodates differences in participants' investments, risks, and bargaining power. METHODS: 1. Establish an IES mathematical model covering core equipment such as wind turbines, PV panels, P2G devices, hydrogen storage tanks, and CHP units. 2. Use KDE to fit wind-solar output marginal distribution, construct a joint probability model with Frank Copula function, and generate typical scenarios via K-means clustering. 3. Adopt a two-stage optimization: first, use mixed-integer linear programming to calculate the total alliance revenue; second, apply symmetric/asymmetric Nash bargaining models for benefit distribution. RESULTS: Based on Liaoning regional grid data, the tripartite alliance reduces system operation cost by approximately 22% and increases renewable energy consumption rate by 18% compared with independent operation. P2G and hydrogen storage realize time-shifting energy transfer, and CHP units adjust output to reduce costs. The Nash bargaining-based benefit distribution meets individual and collective rationality, with all parties’ revenues exceeding independent operation. CONCLUSION: The IES model integrating hydrogen storage, P2G, and carbon capture enhances multi-energy complementarity and time-shifting regulation capacity. The Nash bargaining mechanism ensures fair surplus distribution, providing theoretical and methodical references for multi-party IES collaborative operation.

Groundwater is a vital national resource. To protect it, sustainable use, careful planning, and conservation strategies are necessary to ensure its quality and availability for the future. The purpose of this research is to assess the water quality in the surroundings of the Parichha thermal power plant. This work determined physicochemical parameters pH (Potential of Hydrogen), EC (Electrical Conductivity), TDS (Total Dissolved Solids), Total Hardness, Ca2+ (Calcium ion), Mg2+ (Magnesium ion), Total Alkalinity, and others in both underground and surface water samples collected near Parichha Thermal Power Plant in Jhansi. The correlation coefficients (r) between the various water quality characteristics of the groundwater samples analysed were determined. The results according to the water quality index (WQI) score showed that Site 1 and Site 2 cannot be used for drinking water, but the other sites 3 and 4 have good WQI scores indicating that the water quality of these sites is good and drinkable.

Direct steam generation in parabolic trough collectors presents challenges due to the non-uniform distribution of heat flux and the appearance of flow patterns. These conditions can induce stresses, deformations, and deflections that compromise the structural integrity of the absorber tube; therefore, this study developed a coupled numerical model (optical, thermohydraulic, thermal, and thermoelastic) capable of reproducing the absorber tube’s behavior under real operating conditions. The methodology includes the following: (i) an optical model using Monte Carlo ray tracing to obtain the non-uniform distribution of solar heat flux and the local concentration ratio; (ii) a two-fluid thermohydraulic model to describe the transition from subcooled liquid to superheated vapor; (iii) a thermal conduction model; and (iv) an analytical thermoelastic model to quantify stresses, deformations, and deflections. The results identify the region near 421.35 m as the most critical, where circumferential temperature differences reached 28.38 K, generating maximum deformations between 600 and 800 με and deflections up to 18 mm along a 25 m section, 1 mm about to touch the glass cover. These findings demonstrate that this model facilitates the identification of critical conditions and the assessment of structural risks, contributing to improved reliability and safety in parabolic trough solar thermal power plants.

Introduction . The main idea of the circular economy is to maximize the use of industrial wastes in the production of materials and reduce the use of natural resources. Ash and slag wastes (ASW), generated during coal firing at thermal power plants and stored in ash-disposal dumps is a promising secondary raw material for the production of artificial ceramic aggregates. Materials and methods . This study investigates the physicochemical properties of ASW classified as Class F according to ASTM C618, an optimal composition based on these wastes is determined, aqueous sodium silicate solution being used as a binder. Cylindrical samples are produced by plastic molding and fired at temperatures of 900-1000°C. Results. It has been established that using 25% aqueous sodium silicate solution as a binder by plastic molding can produce samples with a compressive strength of 7-9 MPa and density of 1200-1250 kg/m³ at firing temperatures of 950–1000°C. These characteristics indicate the material’s potential suitability as an artificial ceramic aggregate for concrete. Discussion and conclusion . Further research implies testing this composition as lightweight aggregate in concrete.

A key aspect for the development of solar thermal technology is to improve cost-competitiveness without compromising efficiency. One of the more expensive items in a solar thermal power plant is the heliostat field, which accounts for 40-50% of the total plant investment. One way to decrease this cost is to reduce the size of the field by improving the efficiency in the thermal exploitation of this concentrated solar radiation. This work presents a novel radial solar receiver design based on compact structures, which allows solar radiation to be absorbed more efficiently by reducing the absorber area and shaping a macroscopic sun trap geometry to reduce heat losses. These compact structures are specially designed to work with pressurised gases, so their coupling to supercritical CO2 power cycles is straightforward. Specifically, the direct coupling to a novel sCO2 cycle is considered, where the heat is supplied in the low-pressure line of the cycle and the CO2 is compressed at low temperature, which reduces the auxiliary consumption, increasing the net efficiency. The advantages of the microchannel radial receiver have been highlighted by a thermo-economic comparison between this receiver and a conventional external receiver, resulting in a significantly lower total plant investment (171 Mio.$ vs. 195 Mio.$). This difference is due to the smaller heliostat field required, due to the improved thermal performance of the novel receiver design compared to the more conventional one.

ABSTRACT For more than two decades, by-products of Coal have been used in various applications. Hence, it is necessary to characterize them for various industrial uses such as the glass, ceramics, and production of zeolites. Therefore, in this study, eight elements, such as MgO, CaO, SO2, Fe2O3, Al2O3, SiO2, CO2, and O, were determined with high-depth-of-field images in coal and its by-products using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (FE-SEM with EDS). To confirm the presence of elements, the associated magnetic minerals were identified by magnetic susceptibility (χLF, χHF, and χFD%) measurement using the Bartington MS2B magnetic susceptibility meter. The magnetic susceptibility results reveal the presence of paramagnetic and ferromagnetic minerals, attributed to Al, Mg, O, Ca, and Fe, respectively. Multivariate statistical analyses, including Pearson correlation, factor analysis, and cluster analysis, were conducted on the magnetic minerals and elemental variables to determine and confirm their interrelationships.

This study investigates the effect of fly ash substitution on compressive strength in cemented paste backfill (CPB) systems using an integrated framework combining predictive machine learning, explainable artificial intelligence, and causal machine learning approaches. A dataset comprising 116 experimental CPB mixtures prepared with mineral processing tailings from a Pb–Zn underground mine and fly ashes from different thermal power plants was analyzed. The maximum compressive strength reached 10.33 MPa at 90 days of curing. The cross-validated XGBoost model achieved an R² of 0.58 and successfully predicted strength values up to 9.73 MPa. Causal analysis indicated an average treatment effect of approximately 0.28 MPa per 1% fly ash substitution, although the effect showed substantial heterogeneity across physicochemical conditions. Global and local SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analyses identified curing time as the dominant factor controlling strength development, emphasizing the importance of late-age performance in fly ash–containing systems. The fly ash ratio itself was not a primary explanatory variable; instead, chemical composition, particle size distribution, and specific gravity played decisive roles. These findings demonstrate that fly ash performance in CPB systems cannot be reliably evaluated using dosage-based approaches alone and should be optimized by considering physicochemical characteristics and curing conditions. The proposed explainable and causal data-driven framework provides a practical decision-support tool for sustainable utilization of mineral processing by-products in cement-based systems.

We examined the effectiveness of machine-learning-based electrical demand forecasting frameworks in supporting short-term operational planning for power generation facilities. To this end, a forecasting workflow was designed that integrates statistical learning methods with deep neural architectures to capture both temporal demand dynamics and exogenous weather influences. Model performance was assessed under controlled experimental conditions using multiple accuracy metrics, alongside sensitivity analyses to evaluate the influence of engineered features on predictive stability. The system employed a coordinated multi-model training approach, incorporating temporal decomposition, contextual feature construction, and climate-aware inputs to improve robustness across varying load profiles. Component-level ablation experiments were conducted to isolate the contribution of individual architectural and feature-engineering elements to overall forecasting accuracy. Results indicate that precise short-term load estimation extends beyond historical consumption modeling; it enables more efficient fuel scheduling, supports grid reliability, and enhances the system’s capacity to respond to real-time demand fluctuations.

The coal fly ash (CFA) is produced on large scale in India by thermal power plant. CFA is the waste material having aluminosilicate as the major portion. Zeolite is the aluminosilicates microporous crystalline material. So CFA can be used as a source material for the synthesis of ZSM5 zeolite. In the present study ZSM5 zeolite is synthesized from CFA by reflux method. The synthesized zeolite is characterized by XRD, IR, SEM, EDAX and TG-DTA.

Copper (Cu)-based single-atom catalysts (SACs) enable electrocatalytic CO2 reduction into methane (CH4) fuel for thermal power plant decarbonization, yet conventional Cu SACs face industrial deployment barriers like instability and sluggish kinetics caused by d - p orbital coupling. Herein, we develop a Cu-Ti1O3 catalyst with localized Cu single-atom sites by oxygen vacancy (Ov)-involved orbital engineering, achieving industrial-level CH4 production. Theoretical and in-situ studies reveal the intensification of the d - d coupling at Cu sites triggered by [Cu-Ov - Ti] motifs, which enhances d-π* polar interactions upon *CO2 and accelerates C - O bond cleavage in *OCH3 intermediate. As a result, Cu-Ti1O3 achieves a competitive performance, i.e., the highest Faradaic efficiency of 76% and a peak partial current density of 670 mA cm-2 toward CH4 (corresponding turnover frequency = 24,930 h-1), ~3.5-fold promotion over conventional Cu SACs. Furthermore, it demonstrates high durability (>1,230 hours) at an industrial-level current density, exceeding the longevity of conventional Cu SACs by over 20 times. Our findings highlight the prospect of d-orbital engineering in enabling industrial-level electrocatalytic methanation, offering promising implications for decarbonizing traditional power plants.

The second part of the article presents a study and modeling of the electrophysical characteristics of parts with various purposes featuring a specific laser-induced configuration of microand nanostructural surface features on the product. The relevance of this study is due to the fact that during the operation of any power plant, the values of its electrophysical cha-racteristics are an integral part of it. The conducted research enables control over these chara-cteristics both in the input platform for power supply from corresponding generators to the installation and in the output energy used to ensure the operation of respective units, whose power supply is provided by energy installations of different classes during their operation in required modes, including extreme dynamic operating modes. This study specifically addresses demonstration circuits with prototypes of systems using microscrolls of 1D titanium dioxide structures in metal-carbon compounds (carbon – gold) under C–Au chain doping conditions. In this case, a three-stage process was implemented using laser ablation from a titanium target, synthesizing a thin porous titanium dioxide film and depositing it onto a demonstration quartz glass substrate. Subsequently, linear carbon chains, stabilized by gold nanoparticles at their edges, were introduced into the porous titanium dioxide film matrix by jet spraying, forming an array of microscrolls through mechanical action. Mathematical and computer modeling of topological microand nanostructures on the surfaces of metal complexes with laser-controlled configurations was performed. The conducted analysis allows us to draw a conclusion, based on the proposed procedures and processes regulating the topological structure of the considered surface objects during their laser synthesis, about the prospects of this direction, which is associated with the possibility of controlling the functional surface characteristics in the required direction, particularly regarding their electrophysical para-meters for various products used in energy devices.

This research presents a comprehensive evaluation of Unit #4, a 210 MWe BHEL-designed boiler in a thermal power station, focusing on Flue Gas Duct Airflow Assessment (FGDAA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis of the associated flue gas duct system. The unit operates with six Electrostatic Precipitators (ESPs), three Induced Draft (ID) fans, and two Forced Draft (FD) fans, and the primary objective is to optimize flue gas distribution among ESPs to enhance plant efficiency and reliability. Cold air velocity measurements using calibrated S-type Pitot tubes provided accurate estimation of mass flow distribution in various ducts, while FGDAA under different ID fan operating conditions highlighted important operational efficiency considerations. The study identified non-uniform mass flow distribution across ESPs, which motivated detailed CFD simulations and the development of improved engineering designs for baffle and guide plates to regulate flow. In addition, material selection for these components was investigated through cost analysis and mechanical characterization. Results showed that tungsten carbide-clad plates are significantly more expensive than ceramic guide plates, while microhardness testing indicated silicon carbide as a superior material due to its higher hardness and wear resistance. Wear testing on AISI 1018 steel further demonstrated the influence of mass concentration on erosive damage, underscoring the importance of optimized flow management in flue gas environments. Overall, the study provides valuable insights into airflow control, material selection, and design optimization to improve the performance and service life of flue gas duct systems in thermal power plants.