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ENGINEERING/ECONOMIC ANALYSES OF COAL PREPARATION WITH SO2 CLEANUP PROCESSES FOR KEEPING HIGHER SULFUR COALS IN THE ENERGY MARKET
Citation:
Hoffman, L., S. Aresco, E. Holt, AND Jr. ENGINEERING/ECONOMIC ANALYSES OF COAL PREPARATION WITH SO2 CLEANUP PROCESSES FOR KEEPING HIGHER SULFUR COALS IN THE ENERGY MARKET. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/7-78/002.
Description:
For purposes of this study, higher sulfur coals from the Northern Appalachian and Eastern Interior Regions were selected since they have been shown to have reasonable physical cleaning potential. Then, possible users of these coals in the electric power generating industry were established along with the environmental constraints in their respective localities. This provided a framework within which to study and compare the economics associated with meeting sulfur emission standards in two alternative ways. Specifically, the study considers both new and existing plants using either combined physical cleaning followed by stack gas scrubbing or sulfur clean-up exclusively by stack gas scrubbing. The results of the study indicate that many higher sulfur coals when physically cleaned to a weight yield of 90 percent begin to approach environmental acceptability. This permits the installation of an economically attractive partial stack gas scrubbing system to bring the power generating facility into compliance with existing emissions standards. The economics associated with such a combined approach when compared with the exclusive use of stack gas scrubbing demonstrate a definite advantage.