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ECONOMICS OF DISPOSAL OF LIME/LIMESTONE SCRUBBING WASTES: UNTREATED AND CHEMICALLY TREATED WASTES
Citation:
Barrier, J., H. Faucett, AND L. Henson. ECONOMICS OF DISPOSAL OF LIME/LIMESTONE SCRUBBING WASTES: UNTREATED AND CHEMICALLY TREATED WASTES. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/7-78/023A.
Description:
The report gives results of a detailed, comparative economic evaluation of four alternatives available to the utility industry for the disposal of wastes from flue gas desulfurization using limestone or lime slurry scrubbing. The alternatives are untreated sludge (pond or landfill) and sludge chemically treated by three commercial processes--Dravo's Synearth process (pond and landfill), I.U. Conversion Systems' Poz-O-Tec process (landfill), and Chemfix's ultimate disposal process (landfill), all assumed to be technically proven and applicable to full-scale installations. The base case for each alternative is a new 500 MW power plant burning coal with 3.5% sulfur, 16% ash, and 10,500 Btu/lb heating value. A limestone wet scrubber (1.5 stoichiometry) was used to remove flyash and SO2 to meet New Source Performance Standards. Underflow from the scrubber to the waste disposal system is a 15% solids slurry. A total of 121 system design and operation variations were prepared for the alternative processes. Total capital investments, annual revenue requirements, and lifetime revenue requirements for power plants operating over both declining- and constant- load 30-year profiles are included for the 121 cases. Investment and revenue requirements vary considerably for the 121 cases. The most economical disposal alternative cannot be determined from generalities since costs depend on such site-specific variables as plant size, remaining life, land availability and cost, and coal analysis.