This Drying System Uses a Combination of Thermal Energy from Boiler and Condenser Cooling Water as the Heat Source for Coal Drying USE OF POWER PLANT WASTE HEAT TO REDUCE COAL MOISTURE PROVIDES PLANT PERFORMANCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

In recent years, subbituminous coal from the Powder River Basin and lignites from Texas and North Dakota have captured an increasing share of the power generation market involving pulverized coal-fired power plants. However, these coals contain relatively large amounts of moisture, which affect unit performance, stack emissions and plant maintenance costs. The moisture also results in fuel handling problems. The Energy Research Center has just completed a research project for DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) which shows that use of power plant waste heat to reduce coal moisture before pulverizing the coal can result in improved operations, reduced emissions, and reduced makeup water requirements for evaporative cooling. The coal drying project, which was cofunded by Great River Energy, was led by Edward Levy and Nenad Sarunac. Other Lehigh participants included Hugo Caram, Harun Bilirgen, James Yao, David Wei, Gu Feng, Ursla Levy and John Sale. The project involved laboratory coal drying studies to gather data and develop models on the factors which control the rates of drying. In addition, analyses were carried out to determine the relative costs and performance impacts of coal drying and develop optimized drying system designs.