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Utilization of water utility lime sludge for flue gas desulfurization in coal-fired power plants: Part I. Supply-demand evaluation and life cycle assessment
Citation:
Salih, H., C. Patterson, J. Li, J. Mock, AND S. Dastgheib. Utilization of water utility lime sludge for flue gas desulfurization in coal-fired power plants: Part I. Supply-demand evaluation and life cycle assessment. ENERGY AND FUELS. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 32(6):6627-6633, (2018). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.8b00823
Impact/Purpose:
The main objective of this research was to evaluate the feasibility of an environment friendly and economically attractive approach for reuse of lime softening sludge generated at water treatment plants for flue gas desulfurization (FGD) in coal-fired power plants.
Description:
The main objective of this research was to evaluate the feasibility of an environment friendly and economically attractive approach for reuse of lime softening sludge generated at water treatment plants for flue gas desulfurization (FGD) in coal-fired power plants. An estimate of the annual amount of lime sludge generated by water utilities was compared with the annual amount of limestone used by power utilities to evaluate the demand and supply of replacing limestone with lime sludge on a national scale. Furthermore, a detailed environmental impact (EI) and sustainability assessment was conducted using a detailed life cycle assessment (LCA). At an estimated disposal cost of about 80 million dollars, water utilities across the U.S. are currently generating about 4 million tons of lime sludge per year. While power utilities are using roughly the same amount of limestone per year (3.5 million tons) for FGD. The amount of potential savings that would result from replacing limestone with lime sludge is estimated to be approximately $100 million per year. Our detailed LCA study under different scenarios showed 2 orders of magnitude lower negative EI of lime sludge utilization in power plants compared to the landfill disposal option. Replacing limestone with lime sludge from local water utilities can benefit the power utilities by: 1) eliminating the cost of limestone transportation over long distances; 2) eliminating the energy-intensive grinding stage of limestone preparation; and 3) improving the overall environmental sustainability.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Utilization of water utility lime sludge for flue gas desulfurization in coal-fired power plants: Part I. Supply-demand evaluation and life cycle assessment
Free access through PubMed Central
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.8b00823