Research being done on advanced technology
India is intensifying its focus on supercritical technology and conducting advanced research to reduce pollution from thermal plants.
Supercritical technology has already been adopted for thermal power generation with about 5% efficiency over conventional plant, Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy and Mines has told parliament on 6 April 2017.
Research is also being done for developing Advanced Ultra Supercritical Technology (A-USC) with targeted efficiency improvement of about 10% over supercritical unit, Goyal said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.
The Government has taken several steps to modernize and improve the efficiency of coal based thermal power plants and to reduce the pollution level of coal based thermal power plants in the vicinity of these plants.
This was stated by Shri in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today. These are as follows:
The design efficiency of Supercritical units is about 5% higher than that of typical 500 MW subcritical units and these supercritical units are likely to have correspondingly lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions in ambient air.
He said 39,710 MW power based on supercritical technology has been added and 48,060 MW is in the pipeline.
All Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPPs) are required to use supercritical technology.
Coal-based capacity addition during the 13th Plan period shall be through super-critical units.
Research is being done on A-USC with targeted efficiency improvement of about 10% over supercritical unit.
The minister elaborated.
Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, NTPC Ltd, and BHEL are working under August 2015 Memorandum of Understanding on a 800 MW A-USC indigenous demonstration plant with main steam pressure of 310 kg/cm2 and temperature of 710/ 720 degC.
About 7751.94 MW of old and inefficient capacity has been retired.
To facilitate State Utilities/Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to replace old inefficient coal-based thermal units with supercritical units, the Ministry has formulated a policy of automatic transfer of Letter of Assurance (LOA)/Coal linkage (granted to old plants) to new (proposed) super-critical units.
Meanwhile, Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) Scheme under National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency is being implemented by Bureau of Energy Efficiency. In PAT cycle–II, individual target for improving efficiency has been assigned to 154 thermal power stations.
High efficiency Electrostatics Preceptor are installed to capture Particulate Matters from Flue gases.
Low NOX burners are installed for reducing NOx emission from flue gases.
SO2 emission control is achieved through dispersion of flue gases through tall stacks (275 metres) to reduce the concentration of polluting gases at ground level. fii-news.com
