Case study: Coal power plant in Chile

Energy Production: Coal power

Chilean coal power plant Key figures - Feb 2017

Up to 99% SO2 mitigation
Quantities of sorbent nearly divided by 3
Results after treatment : 300 mg/Nm3 of SO2 in flue gases

Our client’s needs: reducing SO2 emissions more efficiently

A cheaper solution for SO2 mitigation

Running a coal power plant in Chile, our client needed to find a way to reduce its sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions that would be more efficient and less expensive than the process it was using.

Going under the legal limit

The objective was to reach 380 milligrams of SO2 per Nm3, in order to place itself under the 400 mg limit imposed by local legislation. The dry process based on hydrated lime our client was employing for its flue gas treatment consumed considerable amounts of raw material and generated high costs.

What SOLVAir® did for this Chilean coal power plant

Different sorbent, same equipment

By going for SOLVAir®’s solution, the plant changed the sorbent it used to treat its flue

gases, shifting from hydrated lime to bicarbonate (SOLVAir® S350, to be precise), while continuing to use the same dry injection system.

Getting rid of practically all the SO2

The change was implemented in February 2017. The only adjustment to make was to change the equipment’s injection capacity, since now, much smaller quantities of product became necessary. All this results in reaching higher abatement performances: our bicarbonate solution is so powerful that the plant operator can practically eliminate all the SO2 from its emissions!

Benefits for this Chilean coal power plant

Lower flue gas treatment costs

Beyond the increased performance in terms of the desulfurization of its emissions, the power plant significantly reduced its flue gas treatment costs. In fact, it practically divided by three its consumption of sorbent, going from consuming 54 kilograms of hydrated lime to 20kg of bicarbonate per megawatt (or from 2.8 tons of hydrated lime to 1 ton of bicarbonate per hour).

Less residue means reduced logistics costs

Smaller quantities of injected sorbent also means less residue to process, which leads to reduced logistics costs in terms of by-product extraction and equipment maintenance.

Overall lower energy production costs

Also, SOLVAir®’s solution’s higher SO2 mitigation performance means that the plant operator could purchase cheaper coal with higher sulfur content, thus reducing its overall energy production costs.

Focusing on core activities

All in all, using our SOLVAir® solution made life easier for the plant operator: by not having to worry so much about controlling sulfur dioxide emissions, our client can devote more time to his core activities, leading, once again, to more efficiency in energy production.