Performance advantages of a gas-stream MHD retrofit

As a result of the escalation of fuel prices, the necessity of changing from oil to coal because of availability, new environmental regulations, and the increasing costs of cooling water and construction sites, the retrofit of existing power plants has become cost effective, in general. The MHD concept has no strong competitors as a method of retrofitting existing coal-fired power plants. To prove the effectiveness of the MHD concept for retrofit, the following investigations were performed: Retrofit requirements and constraints were developed; it was concluded that previous MHD power plant configurations developed for retrofit applications were not practical; New configurations were developed and analyzed for the best configurations and major operating parameters; thermodynamic and life-cost calculations were prepared for Vermilion No. 1 to determine feasibility and profitability of the retrofit. Major engineering results of the investigation are: it is possible to choose optimal configuration and design operating parameters for each power plant retrofit, taking into account specific features of each power system and the plant itself, such as changing demand for power and electricity, cost of cooling water, environmental regulations, wearing of existing equipment, steam conditions, kind of coal, etc.; with the MHD concept, it is possible to provide themore » means for burning different coals (with higher sulfur content), to increase reliability of the coal supply, and to change coal supplier, if necessary, to reduce the cost of delivered fuel; there is a large possible retrofit market; hence, the MHD retrofit could be a very profitable business.« less