Air Pollution Control
For the 6th time the AE&E Group invited experts from the energy and environmental technology field to Graz, Austria, for an international expert conference, the event was held from September 9 to 11. This year's event was exceptional both in the interest shown as well as in its international scope: 270 visitors from 26 countries indicating the significance attached to low environmental impact power generation worldwide. The conference focused on flue gas cleaning, hence technologies for the removal of pollutants from the emissions created in coal-fired power stations and thermal waste treatment plants were in the forefront. The expert conference, which was opened by Dr. Georg Gasteiger, CEO of the AE&E Group, dealt not only with the latest innovative technology and future perspectives, but also practical experience reports from plant operators.
"As a plant engineering and construction company, we bear a major responsibility, which we take very seriously and seek to meet through the ongoing further development of technologies for emission reduction. Our motto is ‘clean energy for future generations' and therefore by means of our solutions we are already equipping companies for the stricter emission limits of the future," said Georg Gasteiger about the motivation for the extensive R&D activities carried out by the AE&E Group. "Our paramount objective is highly efficient, low cost power generation in combination with minimum environmental impact."
During the first day of the conference the main focus of the presentations was on the development of legislative issues by the EU, strategic orientation for new power plant projects by CEZ, as well as status reports of current new construction projects with coal fired power plants from Trianel at Lünen and from EnBW at Karlsruhe, Germany. Of special interest was the presentation held by Mr. Francois from the European Commission on the status and development of a new guideline on industrial emissions (IED) leading to further improvements for the environment and the health of people by means of further EU-wide reduction of industrial emissions through the application of best available technology (BAT).
Particularly the reports on planned new power plant constructions of European power suppliers showed a clear commitment to a mix of power generation in which fossil fuels, especially hard coal and brown coal, will play an important role in the coming decades.
The morning of the second day of the conference was dedicated to reports on Flue Gas Desulphurisation (FGD) plants completed by AE&E. It covered the wide range of successfully constructed plants starting with the degrees of desulphurisation in excess of 98% at the plant in Tusimice, Czech Republic (fig. 1), as well as in Rybnik, Poland (fig. 2), followed by a presentation about the Turbosorp technology in Greenidge, U.S., where independent measurements executed by the department of energy (DOE), U.S., showed the excellence performance of the system and finally the reports on the seawater desulphurisation technology in Paiton, Indonesia. This was completed by a presentation held by CPI Yuanda, a licensee of AE&E in China, about the large number of FGD plants being installed in China and the developments to be expected in the future.
R&D Projects
The afternoon of the second conference day showed current reports about the most important R&D projects at AE&E. An extensive lecture by Prof. Dr. Bernhard Vosteen, Vosteen Consulting, on the topic of mercury separation based on the dosing of bromine, showed the enormous potential of the technology of attaining a continuous limit value of < 1 µg/m³ for all incineration plants. This technology has already been successfully demonstrated on several 1000 MWel of installed power station capacity and represents an optimum solution as it is easy to retrofit and operating costs are kept to a minimum. AE&E is license holder for this technology since May and is therefore ideally equipped for any future tightening up of heavy metal emissions, especially mercury in Europe.
Mr. Axel Meschgbiz, RWE, presented the REAplus project in Niederaussem, Germany, a joint research project of AE&E and RWE for optimizing the FGD application after coal-fired power plants. At the REAplus pilot plant current emission limits of conventional FGD systems are reduced by a further 90% with the use of optimized operating equipment (fig. 3). The technology which functions on the "tracked mass transfer" principle will be capable of producing such low pollutant emissions that downstream CO2 washing systems do not need any further fine-cleaning separation stages. Commissioning of the pilot plant was completed in August and the trial runs started at the beginning of September. Combining the expertise of operator and manufacturer experience in this joint innovative project, promises to set new standards in separating efficiency and optimized use of operating equipment for FGD systems in coal fired power stations.
Prof. Dr. Josef Draxler, Montan University Leoben, Austria, reported on the first promising results obtained during the current research project of Proionic and AE&E - ionic liquids for CO2 absorption following incineration processes. Ionic liquids are second-generation absorption agents which, due to their chemical and physical characteristics, have enormous potential for improving the downstream CO2 separation. During this research project new ionic liquids are developed in the laboratory and compared with standard solvents e.g. monoethanolamine (MEA). Selected ionic liquids are tested in a pilot plant at the Dürnrohr power station, EVN. Initial results of the development show that even after a brief period new ionic liquids were synthesized which are better by several parameters than e.g. MEA. Although this basic research project is relatively new, first results show that this development can be confidently pursued.
The concluding lecture held by Johannes Lind, AE&E, presented the effects of the reduction of emission levels in Germany regarding NOx on industrial incineration plants in the area of waste and biomass incineration. DeNOx technology based on the SNCR and SCR application was investigated in several large-scale plant tests for its potential reaching maximum separation efficiency. This demonstrates that the strict requirements of < 100 mg/m³ for NOx in the use of modern AE&E grate firing systems and fluidized-bed combustion plants can be met with the sole use of SNCR technology. For more complicated fuels optimized SCR switching versions are available which can meet even lower NOx emission levels.
The third morning was reserved for the AE&E component suppliers, who presented reports on the topic of handling and storage of limestone and gypsum dewatering, gypsum transport and storage. The Friday concluded with lectures on the subject of biomass incineration plants in the U.S. and CDS/Turbosorp technology.
In spite of the current economic difficulties, which are also experienced in the power generation sector, the outlook for the future at the end of AE&E's sixth symposium remains optimistic in line with the motto - clean energy for future generations.
