Alissa Marrapodi

PowerGen International, held Feb. 21-23, returned to Orlando, FL, for 2023. The show appears to be regaining its audience again after a long absence due to the pandemic.

Clarion’s Vice President of Content David Wagman kicked things off by emphasizing the theme of the conference: Destination 2050—reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050 via industry innovation.

Keynote Jan Aspuru, the COO of Orlando Utilities Commission, discussed its microgrid lab and the development of a hydrogen energy storage system, while Alex Glenn, CEO of Duke Energy Florida and Midwest, detailed different areas that impact the plans to reach net zero, including local and federal government partnerships, maintaining equipment performance, and more.

“Coal will represent less than 5% of power generation in 2030,” he said. “A diverse generation mix is key to customers.”

An early presentation provided an overview of direct air capture (DAC) technology and the status of developments and deployments to date. It included a discussion on potential applications for coupling DAC technology with existing power assets to lower the carbon footprint.

Eric Ping, Vice President, Technology at Global Thermostat, explained his company’s DAC system. Air comes in from the sides and is heated to 200°F. Then the CO2 is extracted at a rate of 400 ppm. It uses amine chemistry in solid form instead of the usual solvent form.

“Direct contact steam stripping delivers latent heat into the system,” said Ping. “Multibed adsorption removes significant plant capital expense.”

He added that front-end engineering design (FEED) studies are ongoing for sites in Texas, Illinois, and Alabama to identify risks, establish a plan of execution, and develop a budget before projects are approved for funding.

Caption: Kevin Siess of DTE Energy showcased a new CHP plant that utilizes digital twin technology to operate the plant with a single person on site. Courtesy of Turbomachinery International.

DTE Energy’s Dearborn Central Energy Plant (CEP) generates electricity and distributes chilled water, hot water, and steam to buildings at the Ford Dearborn Research and Engineering Campus (REC). The CEP consists of a combined heat and power (CHP) plant and a chilled/hot water plant for combined power and steam generation. The energy produced from the CHP is sent to DTE Electric. Steam, hot water, and chilled water are sent to the REC. The CHP plant can generate 34 MW and produce up to 225 kilopounds per hour (KPPH) of 200 PSIG saturated steam. It consists of two 14.5 MW Solar Titan 130 gas turbines, a 5 MW condensing steam turbine from Siemens Energy, and two Rentech Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSGs) (370,000 lb/hr).

Kevin Siess, Facility Manager at DTE Energy, said the CEP opened on the first day of 2020. COVID-19-inspired lockdowns provided the impetus to innovate in plant monitoring.

“A single person looks after the entire 34 MW, 87,000-square-foot facility 76% of the time,” said Siess.

Caption: Sessions at PowerGen International 2023 were generally well attended. Courtesy of Turbomachinery International.

Coal-to-gas conversions were covered in several sessions during the show. While some dream of transitioning to renewables in a matter of a few years, reality is beginning to set in. By moving coal resources to natural gas, major emissions reductions can be achieved without causing grid disruption or causing rolling blackouts as has been the case in California of late.

Jonas Hackmann, President of Fossil Power Systems, talked about the many technical and project execution challenges to be considered when planning to convert a tangential fired furnace from coal to natural gas.

Another session noted strong interest in 100% hydrogen firing or co-firing large utility-class coal, oil, and natural gas boilers to achieve decarbonization goals. What surprised some attendees was the fact that running hydrogen in boilers is nothing new.

“We have had a great many package boilers running nothing but hydrogen for decades,” said Denis Osowski, Development Director, Engineering Technology at Babcock & Wilcox.

He questioned, however, whether the use of hydrogen in boilers made sound economic sense most of the time to produce power and steam. In situations where there is a hydrogen hub operating and a coal boiler is sitting nearby, it may make sense. But overall, he said hydrogen is a super-expensive fuel and the use of it may require expensive system and equipment modifications.

Rethinking data center power was the topic of a session toward the end of the program. Todd Forrest

Senior Project Development Engineer at HDR, briefed the crowd that there are already more than 4 GW of data centers in the U.S. in primary and secondary markets, and the market is experiencing 11% year-over-year growth. He doesn’t anticipate that growth rate slowing down any time soon.

The full show report is available in the March/April print issue of 

Articles

Dominant themes at the show included hydrogen, the evolution of power plant, and CHP. 

PowerGen 2023 Showcases Innovation 

Brian King, senior mechanical engineer at Burns & McDonnell, recently reviewed the Big River Case Study at PowerGen International in Orlando, Florida. It was an interesting showcase for boiler data on coal-to-natural-gas plant conversions. The presentation included the background for converted units, project description, modeling, timeline, and equipment. The units used were two very similar B&W steam generators—RB 568 and 570. This project only utilized the primary boiler air fan, even though a secondary was available.

Brian King, senior mechanical engineer at Burns & McDonnell, presents at PowerGen 2023.

Phase one established a budget and schedule. About 10% - 15% of the design work was done upfront. After preliminary studies were completed, a performance guarantee was issued, and cost estimations were made regarding equipment. Phase two encompassed plant design. At the end of phase two, the team issued a bid for the construction package that included all mechanical and electrical components. Phase three involved the pre-outage work.

The project started with independent third-party modeling. The team analyzed several burners and investigated various approaches to the project. The team’s initial modeling predicted lower superheat and reheat temperatures. That data was then applied to recalibrate heat-absorption rates in the boiler. Real-world results were able to make full load within preset temperature tolerance parameters.

As expected, the boiler absorbed more heat with gas than coal. The economizer temperature with coal was 730°F; with gas it was 618°F. There were much less superheat and zero reheat spray. In 2020, they were asked to phase out coal for gas by June 2022. They made the full load on both units by May 25, 2022. The gas yard is ready to embrace combined cycle operation if built. There is potential for noise pollution. There are redundant trains for high pressure (HP) as a control skid. There was also an odorizor, filter separator, and an underground line to the emergency safety valve station.

Smart coal conversion discussed at PowerGen 2023.

Coal-to-Gas Conversion: A Case Study 

The stage for the keynote address at PowerGen 2023.

At PowerGen 2023, held Feb. 21 – 23 in Orlando, FL, Clarion’s, VP of Content David Wagman kicked things off. Front and center was the concept “Destination 2050”—reaching net zero carbon emissions by the year 2050. The conference hoped to explore how the power generation industry can adapt to the changes required by increased government environmental oversight. There was also a rundown of the eight session tracks, knowledge hubs on the exhibit floor, and more.

Jan Aspuru, the COO of Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC), discussed their microgrid lab and the development of a hydrogen-energy storage system. He also spoke on the company’s Osceola generating station, which utilizes GE gas turbines. He noted how intermittent solar is a renewable source for the state of Florida, and that natural gas is seen as a more persistent option. Traditional power needs to work in tandem with newer solutions to retain grid reliability.

Alex Glenn, Senior VP and CEO of Duke Energy Florida and Midwest, detailed different areas that impact the plans to reach net zero. These include local and federal government partnerships, maintaining equipment performance, addressing concerns of stakeholders, and supply chain constraints. “Coal will represent less than 5% of power generation in 2030,” he said. “A diverse generation mix is key to customers.”

Front and center was the concept “Destination 2050”—reaching net zero carbon emissions by the year 2050. 