Mitigation of Carbon Dioxide Emissions of Coal Power Stations

Coal fired power stations are among factors mostly polluting atmosphere by greenhouse gases, especially by CO₂. Strong efforts are done to reduce this pollution, increasing the generation efficiency by gasification of coal, development of super -critical power units and so on. For the existing power station good results may be achieved by simultaneous optimization of the operation condition including proper choice of the fired coal. An analysis of data collected in IEC, where more than 60% of electricity is generated in coal fired units, makes it possible to explore dependence of greenhouse gases emissions (CO₂, SO₂, NO_x,) on the fired coals composition and operation condition. As a tool for the above data analysis computer technique, created in IEC, was used. The technique is based on a modular numerical model including elements corresponding to furnace, boiler, turbine and the whole power unit. It permits to reveal the influence of the coal composition on the boiler and the whole unit performance, as well as on the pollutant emissions. The technique application permitted to separate impact of the two factors: the coal composition and operation conditions on specific emissions of the pollutants. The main result of the study is that the optimization of operation condition while proper choice of the coal provides decrease of pollutants emissions. 2. Bioconversion of CO₂ emitted by power stations by intensive photosynthesis is one of the mostly efficient ways for carbon emissions mitigation, especially in countries with high solar activity. Agricultural projects based on CO₂ enrichment by flue gases -greenhouses, water ponds for macro and micro algae growing, forests, citrus orchards and other biological systems, if placed in the neighborhood of the coal-fired power stations with high content of CO₂ in the flue gases, can be profitable also because of use of cheap low-potential heat and the station infrastructure. Efforts for removal of pollutant components of the flue gases will be compensated by high CO₂ content. First steps in this direction have been done by IEC in collaboration with MATI Lev-ha-Galil, Hishtil Nurseries, ARO and IOLR, with support of the R&D Division of the Ministry of the National Infrastructure and showed feasibility of the proposal.