Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
SCR Projects
R.A. Kuchner
J.A. Hines
The Babcock & Wilcox Company
Barberton, Ohio, U.S.A.
Abstract sions and the process used to orchestrate them into an effective
The retrofitting of power plants with NOx control technolo- project will be discussed and placed into an economic perspec-
gies is a cost-intensive undertaking facing many utilities. Key tive. The paper will highlight some of the key opportunities for
to controlling the economic impact to the utility is the effective controlling Selective Catalytic Reduction project costs.
execution of these projects. B&W has successfully designed and
installed a number of Selective Catalytic Reduction systems for
both gas- and coal-fired boilers. The success of these installa- Introduction
tions is a direct result of the key decisions made during and the The promulgation of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990
integrated techniques applied to the design and installation of caused many fossil-fired electric generating plants to install or
these systems. The systems are comprised predominantly of plan for the installation of Selective Catalytic Reduction sys-
flues, ducts, structural steel, reactors, catalyst, and ammonia tems (SCRs) on their existing boilers to reduce the emissions of
systems, but may also need to include modifications to the ex- nitrogen oxides (NOx). These systems are typically installed in the
isting boiler or its ancillary equipment. flue gas stream between the boiler’s economizer and air heater.
The magnitude of the project can range from 10s to upwards The systems consist of a reactor(s) housing the catalyst, flues or
of 100 million dollars depending on the size of the units, the flue modifications to deliver and return the flue gases to the reac-
extent of the modifications needed, and site-specific conditions tor, control dampers or bypasses, the structural steel required to
and requirements. The cost of the engineered equipment and support the new equipment, ammonia delivery system, and possi-
the associated cost of installation are about equal in magnitude. bly modifications to the boiler or its ancillary equipment to deliver
Most system installations are retrofit projects. Optimizing the flue gases within the required temperature range. Boiler and ancil-
design of these unit-specific systems and the associated instal- lary equipment modifications might also include the costly stiff-
lation of these large components in typically restricted spaces ening of the boiler enclosure, flues and precipitator.
during the minimum duration outage(s) involve a number of For many natural-gas-fired installations, the catalyst required
compromises and decisions. Typically these projects involve to achieve the desired or required level of NOx reduction may
hundreds or thousands of tons of structural and plate steel and be small enough to be installed in a flue section between the
hundreds of thousands of manhours of field labor. The deci- boiler and air heater. Often the flue section need only be flared
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