https://www.engineeringnews.co.za
boilers|Cleaning|Coal|Efficiency|Energy|Financial|Health|Infrastructure|Power|Projects|Storage|Systems|Technology|transport|Infrastructure
boilers|Cleaning|Coal|Efficiency|Energy|Financial|Health|Infrastructure|Power|Projects|Storage|Systems|Technology|transport|Infrastructure
boilers|cleaning|coal|efficiency|energy|financial|health|infrastructure|power|projects|storage|systems|technology|transport|infrastructure

Countries urged to embrace greener energy sources

University of the Witwatersrand visiting adjunct professor Adam Luckos

University of the Witwatersrand visiting adjunct professor Adam Luckos

Photo by Dylan Slater

21st November 2018

By: Simone Liedtke

Creamer Media Social Media Editor & Senior Writer

     

Font size: - +

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Amid rising global energy demand, University of the Witwatersrand visiting adjunct professor Adam Luckos urges developing countries to embrace greener energy principles.

To do this without jeopardising economic growth, he suggests that developing countries, where coal is the most viable indigenous energy source, invest in clean coal technologies (CCTs).

“Reliable and affordable electricity supports prosperity, enhances living standards and helps to alleviate poverty; however, climate change and health issues have to be addressed,” he told delegates at the Fossil Fuel Foundation’s Clean Coal Technologies conference, in Glenhove, on Wednesday.

According to Luckos, CCTs facilitate the use of coal in an environmentally satisfactory and economically viable manner. A basic approach, he suggested, was to reduce emissions by reducing the formation of pollutants and cleaning the flue gases after combustion.

A parallel approach is to develop more thermally efficient systems so that less coal is used to generate the same amount of power. In this regard, Luckos said a one percentage point increase in a plant’s thermal efficiency can reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by between 2% and 3%.

Improved energy efficiency makes big changes, but deep cuts of CO2 can only be achieved by adopting carbon capture and storage (CCS), he added.

However, CCS is advancing slowly, Luckos noted, as a result of high costs and a lack of political and financial will.

Global CCS research and development spend exceeded $1-billion a year over the 2009 to 2013 period, but has fallen sharply since then, he said.

Consequently, he highlighted that CCT is increasingly being suggested for use at supercritical (SC) and ultra-SC coal-fired power plants without CCS, which run at a thermal efficiency of between 42% and 48%. These are also known as high-efficiency, low-emission (HELE) plants.

COMMERCIAL AND EMERGING CCT

While some of the CCTs are now commercially available, Luckos highlighted that others are still at the demonstration or research stages.

Commercial HELE technologies include pulverised coal (PC) combustion in SC steam boilers with single and double reheat, he said.

However, he warned that while PC is the “most-commonly used technology in coal-fired power plants”, PC combustion has not always been appropriate for coals with a low volatile matter and high ash content.

Other CCT options include fluidised-bed combustion in circulating beds with SC, as well as combined heat and power.

“Commercial HELE technologies, if deployed, can reduce CO2 emissions from the entire power sector by around 30%,” Luckos stated.

Demonstrated CCTs, meanwhile, include integrated gasification combined cycle and a pressurised fluidised-bed combustion with a combined cycle.

In this regard, Luckos lamented that several demonstrations and commercial projects have been hindered or cancelled as a result of lacking political or financial support. Additionally, the deployment of safe transport and storage infrastructure is also a barrier.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

Comments

Showroom

Schauenburg SmartMine IoT
Schauenburg SmartMine IoT

SmartMine IoT has been developed with the mining industry in mind, to provides our customers with powerful business intelligence and data modelling...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Magni SA
Magni SA

Magni SA is committed to developing the safest Telehandlers available to our customers for underground and surface mining, construction, forestry,...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.128 0.189s - 174pq - 6rq
Subscribe Now