Analysis of pollutant emission reduction in a coal power plant using renewable energy

Abstract

Abstract The major and challengeable restriction facing coal power plants (CPPs) is the emission of polluting gases caused by burning coal. Therefore, adopting the reasonable and practical solutions toward mitigate the emission of pollutants is needful. The integration of renewable technologies and energies with such plants can be possible in achieving higher efficiency and mitigating emissions. In the current research, the thermodynamic assessment and analysis of pollutant emission reduction in a CPP using renewables is developed. In this regard, a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) and a solar farm (based on parabolic dish collectors, PDCs) are integrated with CPP. Developed CPP can generate electric power and domestic hot water (DHW). In addition to MCFC, two gas and steam turbines have been installed in CPP to generate electricity. The planned CPP is primarily coal-driven; however, it has been integrated with renewables units to reduce the environmental hazards caused by burning coal. According to the findings yielded from the simulation, the planned CPP has energy and exergy efficiencies equal to 72.5% and 43.85%, respectively. It was also estimated that CPP could generate around 205.5 MW of electricity and 1027.5 kg of DHW per second. Additionally, the amount of gases released from CPP was estimated approximately equal to 0.116 t/s. On average, the required number of collectors in solar units A and B should be almost 89.9 and 25.4, respectively. The performance of CPP when using Powder River Basin coal (PRBC) has been also compared with the performance of the plant when using petcoke.