Power Plant Emissions

Google Search +"SO2" +"$/ton"

Canada

 

Commission for Environmental Cooperation, CEC (North America)

 

Great Lakes Region


Mid-Atlantic US

  • Maryland
    • Healthy Air Act signed by Governor Robert Ehrlich, April 2006
      • requires Maryland to enter the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a carbon dioxide cap-and-trade program involving seven other northeastern states, due to start in 2009.
      • requires reduction in other pollutants beyond pending federal regulations. 
        • to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide 80% by 2010, 85% by 2013
        • to reduce nitrogen oxides by 69% in 2009 and 75% in 2012
        • to reduce mercury by 80% in 2010 and 90% in 2013

Minnesota

 

Northeast US

Southeastern US States

Texas

US Government / USA

Western US States


Emission Broker [emission allowance pricing]*

 

Emissions Trading

 

Global Change

Research Glossary:- (Hey, I'm still learning.)

  • ACI= activated carbon injection, a method to reduce mercury emissions from waste to energy facilities, under study for application to coal plants.
  • allowance
    • Emission sources are provided "allowances" and each year the source must hold sufficient allowances to cover all NOx tons the source emits during the ozone season
    • each allowance represents one ton of emissions
  • biogenic carbon
    • biogenic= produced by living organisms
    • Biofuels contain "biogenic" carbon. Under international greenhouse gas accounting methods developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, biogenic carbon is part of the natural carbon balance and it will not add to atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide.  Reporters may wish to use an emission factor of zero for wood, wood waste, and other biomass fuels in which the carbon is entirely biogenic. Municipal solid waste, however, normally contains inorganic materials principally plastics that contain carbon that is not biogenic. The proportion of plastics in municipal solid waste varies considerably depending on climate, season, socio-economic factors, and waste management practices. As a result, EIA does not estimate a non-biogenic carbon dioxide emission factor for municipal solid waste. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that, in 1997, municipal solid waste in the United States contained 15.93 percent plastics and the carbon dioxide emission factor for these materials was 5,771 lbs per ton.4 Using this information, a proxy for a national average non-biogenic emission factor of 919 lbs carbon dioxide per short ton of municipal solid waste can be derived. This represents 91.9 lbs carbon dioxide per million Btu, assuming the average energy content of municipal solid waste is 5,000 Btu/lb.
  • CAAA = Clean Air Act Amendments
  • CAC = Criteria Air Contaminant - Canada
  • CAFE standards = Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards (vehicles)
  • CAIR = US-EPA Clean Air Interstate Rule, to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants
  • CAMR = US- EPA Clean Air Mercury Rule
  • CDM = Clean Development Mechanism
  • CEMS = Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems
  • coal types
    • anthracite= highest of the metamorphic rank with carbon between 92% and 98%.  A dense, shiny coal that has a high carbon content and little volatile matter and burns with a clean flame. Also called hard coal, blue coal, stone coal, blind coal, Kilkenney coal (Ireland), and black diamond.
    • bituminous= organic sedimentary rock formed by diagenetic and submetamorphic compression of peat bog materials containing a tar-like substance called bitumen.  Higher quality than lignite coal; lower quality than anthracite.  Also called soft coal.  Usually black, some times brown, often with well defined bands of bright and dull material.
      • mercury content: 0.036-0.279 ppm (dry), average= 0.113 ppm (dry)
    • sub-bituminous= quality ranging between lignite and bituminous coal, used primarily for steam-electric power generation.  May be dull, dark brown to black, soft and crumbly at the lower end of the range, to bright, jet black, hard and relatively strong at the upper end.  Contains 20 to 30 percent moisture by weight with heat content ranging between 17 to 24 million Btu per short ton.  Its relatively low density and high water content makes some types of sub-bituminous coal subject to spontaneous combustion
    • lignite= brown coal, lowest rank of coal, with moisture content as high as 45% and high ash content compared to bituminous coal, used almost exclusively as fuel for steam-electric power generation.
      • mercury content: 0.080-0.127 ppm (dry), average= 0.107 ppm (dry)
    • waste coal= low energy-value discards of the coal mining, called "culm" in the eastern Pennsylvania anthracite coal region and "gob" or "boney" in the bitiminous coal mining regions (western Pennsylvania, West Virginia).
  • control technologies
  • CTL= coal to liquids, generic reference to converting coal to liquid fuels.
    • cost effective in the $30 to $40 per barrel oil price environment.
  • denitrification
    • process through which nitrate is transformed and re-emitted to the atmosphere as N2O or N2, forms of nitrogen which are not usable by plants and animals.
  • DER = Discrete Emission Reductions
  • EGU = electric generating units
  • ERC = Emission Reduction Credits
    • under alternative name for Discrete Emission Reductions.
  • eutrophication
    • Nitrogen is a limiting nutrient for plants and animals in many coastal ecosystems. As a result, increases in nitrogen and other nutrients frequently increase the rate of supply of organic matter, particularly algae, to waterbodies such as estuaries. This phenomenon is known as eutrophication, and can lead to a loss of oxygen in the water, a condition referred to as hypoxia. When excessive quantities of algae grow in response to extra nutrients, they eventually die and fall to the bottom of the estuary, where they are decomposed by bacteria. Decomposition consumes oxygen and can deprive an estuary of oxygen needed for plants, fish, shellfish, and other organisms to live.
  • Fischer-Tropsch process
    • Fischer-Tropsch Archive
    • Google search on +Fischer +Tropsch
    • US EPA on Fischer-Tropsch
    • Wikipedia on Fischer-Tropsch process
    • From Infoplease: The named after F. Fischer and H. Tropsch, the German coal researchers who discovered it in 1923.  A method for the synthesis of hydrocarbons and other aliphatic compounds. Synthesis gas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, is reacted in the presence of an iron or cobalt catalyst; much heat is evolved, and such products as methane, synthetic gasoline and waxes, and alcohols are made, with water or carbon dioxide produced as a byproduct. An important source of the hydrogen–carbon monoxide gas mixture is the gasification of coal (see water gas).
    • From Infoplease: water gas: colorless poisonous gas that burns with an intensely hot, bluish (nearly colorless) flame. The gas is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen with very small amounts of other gases, e.g., carbon dioxide, and is almost entirely combustible as a result. Water gas is so named because of the use of water (steam) in its preparation. This process involves treating white-hot hard coal or coke with a blast of steam; carbon monoxide and hydrogen are formed. The gas is manufactured in vast quantities for commercial use. It is of much importance in the preparation of hydrogen and as a fuel in the making of steel and in other industrial processes, e.g., the Fischer-Tropsch process
  • GHG = Green House Gases

  • Hg = chemical element symbol for mercury

    • exists in 3 forms in flue gas

      • Hg(0)= elemental Hg - difficult to capture

      • Hg(II)= oxidized Hg

      • Hgp= particulate Hg

  • HHV

    • The energy content of natural gas can be expressed on a higher heating value or lower heating value basis. Higher heating value includes the heat of vaporization of water formed as a product of combustion, whereas lower heating value [LHV] does not. While it is customary for manufacturers to rate equipment on a lower heating value basis, fuel is generally purchased on the basis of higher heating value.
    • Higher heating value is used as a convention in AURORA unless otherwise stated.

  • HRVOC = Highly Reactive Organic Gases, see also VOC and ROG

  • JI = Joint Implementation

  • LFE = large final emitters

  • LFG = landfill gas

    • Landfill gas is a renewable fuel with a heating value of 350 to 600 Btu/cubic-ft, about one-half that of natural gas.

  • LHV - see HHV for contrast of LHV from HHV.

  • MACT = Maximum Achievable Control Technology

  • 1 British thermal unit (Btu) = 1,055 joules
    1 gigajoule = 1,000,000,000 joules
    1 petajoule = 1,000,000 gigajoules or 1015 joules

    1 Mega-ton (Mt) = 1 million tons
    1 metric ton (tonne)

    • = 1000 kilograms (kg)

    • = 0.98420653 long ton

    • = 2,204.6226 pounds

    • = 1.1023113 short ton

    1 kilogram

    • 2.2046226 pounds

    1 long ton

    • = 1.12 short ton

    • = 1.01604690633378 metric ton (tonne)

    1 pound

    • = 0.453592374495299 kilogram

    • = 0.00045359237 metric ton (tonne)

    1 short ton

    • = 2000 pounds (lb)

    • = 0.907184748990598 metric ton (tonne)

    • = 907.184748990598 kilogram (kg)

    • = 0.892857142857143 long ton

  • NBP = NOx Budget trading Program
     

  • NESCAUM = Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management

  • NSPS = New Source Performance Standards

  • nitrate

    • compound containing one nitrogen atom and three oxygen atoms (NO3 -) that can exist in the atmosphere or as a dissolved gas in water and which can have harmful effects on humans and animals. Nitrates in water can cause severe illness in infants and domestic animals.

  • nitrogen compounds

  • NOx = Nitrogen oxides, oxidized nitrogen, one type of DER, contributor to formation of acid rain.

  • N2O = nitrous oxide, powerful greenhouse gas contributing to climate change
    http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/articles/nitrogen.pdf - see page 10
    70% of nitrous oxide emissions were produced by agriculture soil management operations.  Evaporation from settling ponds used in treating waste from large animal feedlot operations can also contribute to airborne transport of nitrogen compounds, with local as well as broader impacts.
     

  • NMOC = non-methane organic compounds

  • ORIS = Office of Regulatory Information Systems

  • ORISPL = ORIS Plant Location number = EIA Plant Code for power plants (facility)

    • recent description of ORISPL usage:
      http://ferc.aspensys.com/chap2/EPA%20Data/Raw%20data/edrinst_june00.pdf
      "Facility/ORISPL Number (4). Report the ORISPL code or facility ID for the facility. The number should be right-justified and padded to the left with leading zeros. The ORISPL code is the same as the Department of Energy (DOE) plant or facility code. Obtain the plant/facility code from the Energy Information Administration, Department of Energy (DOE) Form EIA-860, "Annual Electric Generations Report" or Form EIA-867, "Annual Nonutility Power Producer Report." If you do not have an ORISPL code for a plant/facility, contact EPA’s Clean Air Markets Division to determine what code to use."
       

  • OTAG = Ozone Transport Assessment Group.

    • Separate from the OTC, EPA and the Environmental Council of the States
       

  • OTC = Ozone Transport Commission
     

  • Ozone (O3)

    • gaseous allotrope of oxygen, formed naturally from diatomic oxygen by electric discharge or exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Its presence in the stratosphere protects the Earth from ultraviolet radiation, while its presence in the lower troposphere is damaging to plant, animal, and human health.

  • PEOC = potential electrical output capacity

    • PEOC for a unit is calculated by dividing the maximum design heat input capacity in Btu/hr of the unit by 3 (reflecting the assumed efficiency of the unit), dividing again by 3,413 (reflecting the assumed heat rate), and dividing by 1,000 (converting to MWe). See 40 CFR part 72, appendix D.

  • PPM = parts per million

  • RACT = reasonably available control technology

  • REC = renewable energy certificates, AKA green attributes, green tags

  • RGGI = Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative formed in the northeastern US to develop domestic GHG regulation, coordinating with Northeastern States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM)

  • ROG = Reactive Organic Gases, see also VOC and HRVOC

    • This term encountered when studying California RECLAIM emissions.

  • SCR = selective catalytic reduction

  • scrubber types

    • WLS= wet limstone

    • WL= wet lime FGD

    • DL= dry lime

    • DA= dual alkali

    • SB= sodium based

    • FBL= fluidized bed limestone injection

    • MO= magnesium oxide
       

  • SIP = State Implementation Plan

  • SIP Call =

    • based on OTAG

    • EPA proposed NOx SIP call in 1997 and finalized in 1998.

    • This rule concluded that NOx emissions in twenty two states and the District of Columbia contribute to ozone nonattainments in other states and the rule required affected states to amend their state implementation plans (SIPs) and limit NOx emissions.  EPA set an ozone season NOx budget for each affected state, essentially a cap on emissions from May 1 to September 30 in the state.  The first control period was scheduled for the 2003 ozone season.

    • http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/cmprpt/nox03/noxreport03.pdf - see page 5


    •  

  • SNCR = selective non-catalytic reduction

  • supercritical steam
    Thermodynamics govern the ultimate performance of Rankine cycles whether they are used in a coal fired steam power plant or the bottoming cycle of a combined cycle plant. In order to increase the efficiency of those cycles, higher pressure and temperature steam conditions are desired. As a result, many coal fired steam plants being built and planned around the world today utilize "supercritical" steam conditions to achieve higher efficiency.

    When the pressure in a boiler exceeds the "critical" pressure of 3208 psi, water and steam have the same density and no longer exist as separate phase states. Steam conditions above the critical pressure are referred to as "supercritical." Because the water and steam don't have to be separated in a boiler drum, once-through boilers of a Benson or Sulzer design are typically used to generate supercritical steam.

  • therm

    • Wikipedia: Therm
      The therm (symbol thm) is a non-SI unit of heat energy equal to 100,000 British thermal units (BTU). It is approximately the energy equivalent of burning 100 cubic feet (often referred to as 1 hcf) of natural gas.

       

      = 105,506,000 joules
      ≈ 29.3072222 kWh
      The therm (EC) is often used by engineers in the US.
      = 105,480,400 joules
      ≈ 29.3001111 kWh.
      • Therm (UK) = 105,505,585.257 348 joules[3]
      ≈ 29.30710701583 kWh

  • VER = verified emission reduction

  • VOC = volatile organic compounds, one type of DER
    see also HRVOC and ROG

 

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