Tuesday 6 August 2013

Most Electricity Producer Coal

                                    Total World Electricity Generation by Fuel (2009)
                                       
 

Modern life is unthinkable without electricity. Lights houses, buildings, streets, provides domestic and industrial heat and power more computers used in homes, offices and machinery in factories. Improving access to electricity worldwide is key to reducing poverty.

How coal is converted into electricity?

Steam coal, also known as thermal coal used in power plants to generate electricity.

The coal is first crushed to a fine powder, which increases the surface area and allowing it to burn faster. In these systems pulverized coal combustion (PCC), powdered coal is blown into the combustion chamber of a boiler where it is burned at high temperature (see diagram below). The hot gases and heat energy produced converts water - in cladding tubes of the boiler - steam.

                                         

The high pressure steam is passed to a turbine which contains thousands of blades of the propeller-like. The steam drives these blades causing the turbine shaft to rotate at high speed. A generator mounted on one end of the turbine shaft and has wound wire coils carefully. Electricity is generated when these are rapidly rotating in a strong magnetic field. After passing through the turbine, the steam is condensed and returned to the boiler to be heated again.
The electricity generated is transformed into the higher voltages (up to 400,000 volts) used for economical and efficient transmission through powerline networking. As you near the point of consumption, such as our homes, electricity is transformed to the safer 100-250 voltage systems used in the domestic market.

Efficiency Improvements


Improvements continue to be made in the design of conventional PCC power plant and new combustion technologies are being developed. These allow more electricity to be produced from less coal - known as improving the thermal efficiency of the plant. Increased efficiency in generating electricity from coal power plants will have a crucial role in reducing CO2 emissions globally.
Efficiency improvements include cost effective and shorter delivery times for the actions to reduce emissions from coal-fired power generation. This is particularly true in developing countries, where there efficiency of power plants are generally less use and coal in power generation is increasing. Not only coal-fired power plants more efficient emit less carbon dioxide per megawatt (MW), but are also suitable for retrofitting with CO2 capture systems.
Improving the efficiency of pulverized coal power plants has been the focus of major efforts by the coal industry. There is ample scope for significant improvements in efficiency as the existing fleet of power plants are replaced in the next 10 to 20 years with new efficiency supercritical and ultra-supercritical plants taller, and through wider use systems integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) for power generation.
A one percentage point improvement in the efficiency of a conventional pulverized coal combustion plant results in a reduction of 2-3% in CO2.

5 Ways To Produce Electricity

Coal


Britain still offers a reliable energy source, uninterrupted accounting for 33% of electricity generation. But it is a dirty fuel that produces emissions of greenhouse gases are heavy and indigenous sources being directed downward.
UK Coal, the privatized company and the successor to the National Coal Board, is struggling to get benefits of a shrinking number of deep mines and relatively expensive. Increasingly seen as a takeover target for speculators who want to develop their land bank instead of coal mines. National Coal has the added problem of being heavy SO2 sulfur producers and the public has shown adamantly opposed to surface mining permit, which is relatively cheap, but hard on the landscape.
Any real investment in coal is in the construction of new import facilities. Imports from South Africa, Australia and elsewhere are plentiful, but there is competition for supplies of coal nations like China with high consumption. In 2020 the Department of Trade and Industry estimates that coal's contribution to the UK energy mix will be reduced by half.

Clean coal


Advances in technology offer a new dawn for the coal sector clean up environmental groups are excited about some of the plants that can be built. La planta de gasificación de Carbón Integrada en Ciclo Combinado (GICC) con el Apoyo de Amigos de la Tierra. El Carbón sí rompe los antes de Que se utiliza en la estación de Energía, la Extracción del Hidrógeno y Por lo Tanto el Carbono.
The hydrogen is burned and all the carbon is "sequestered" - is injected into disused oil and gas fields in the North Sea or elsewhere buried underground.
The British mining industry, under the state-owned NCB, was a leader in clean coal technology, but the research and development of all but stopped in the privatization. The DTI has funded from a small program and Energy Minister will meet with his Norwegian counterpart to discuss the kidnapping.

Nuclear


Nuclear generation provides a fifth of the electricity supply in Britain, after gas and coal, but well ahead of the renewable energy sector. Its great advantage is that it is "always on", reactors generate energy - providing a base load - all day. However, the lack of new construction in the UK since the construction of Sizewell B means that the reactors are increasing and in some cases have been "cut" unplanned when they have to be taken out of service for maintenance. Two issues dominate the debate on the nuclear option: security, including concerns about terrorist attacks and the elimination of waste and the economy. The math is complicated, the activists and anti-nuclear are far from if economically feasible, especially when taking into account the costs of cleanup of nuclear facilities and nuclear waste storage.

Gas


Represents 40% of electricity generation. Its popularity is not hard to understand: Britain has enjoyed self-sufficiency in the supply of gas from the North Sea for the year, although it is now a net importer. The future depends on gas can standards for carbon emissions, the development of the necessary infrastructure to allow Britain to import everything you need, and the price. Britain is the installation of new terminals to allow the import of liquefied natural gas, as well as the construction of new pipelines or expanding existing ones to increase the amount that can be brought from Belgium and Norway. Some companies are creating or seeking planning permission for additional storage capacity that allows them to buy gas in the summer, when it's cheaper, store it and then sell it at higher prices in winter. The price of gas has proven to be volatile, rising five times in a month recently. It is, however, likely to remain basic fuel.

Renewables


Wind, wave, solar and other renewable power sources have been at the forefront of a drive to cut carbon emissions. The government has set a target of producing 10% of the country's electricity from these "green" alternatives by 2010 and has an aspiration of achieving 20% by 2020. At the moment the figure is 4%.
But progress has not been easy, even with financial aid from the state through an "obligation" energy suppliers to source some of their energy from renewable sources. Wind has taken the lead in these new energy sources in Britain, but the path towards greater use of turbines has many obstacles: the costs associated with the connection of remote sites to the national grid, planning applications have bogged down by saying communities turbines are noisy eyesores, and leggings have taken place with the RAF on the turbines affect radar in military aircraft.
But overall future still looks bright for wind energy, while the energy of waves and solar have been much slower to develop. Biomass burning crops instead of carbon fuels such as coal, also has progressed. And BP said this week it plans to build the largest alternative energy company in the world.