Ikelic - Alliance Digital Repository

GENERAL
50 megawatts; 2) basing the design on an in
dustrial gas turbine system; 3) using a dual pres
sure steam cycle; 4) using steam generator ex
haust gas for chip drying. Overall power produc
tion performance of the system is summarized in
Table 1.
Based on the flowsheet shown in Figure 2 (next
page), gasifier designs were developed for the
gasifier system and the gas/steam turbine sys
tem.
Total installed equipment costs on a dollars per
installed kilowatt basis, were calculated to be less
than projections for a new central power station.
These costs are shown in Table 2 (next page).
The total calculated cost of electricity is
$0.0563 per kilowatt-hour for a capital charge
rate of 20 percent, which is equivalent to a
10 percent return on investment.
McNeil Station Project Participants
Key participants in the project are Future Energy
Resources, Battelle's licensee for the gasification
technology; the McNeil joint owners, Burlington
Electric Department, Central Vermont Public Serv
ice Corporation, Green Mountain Power, and the
Vermont Public Power Supply Authority; Zurn
TABLE 1
WOOD GASIFICATION
PLANT PERFORMANCE
Power Summarv MW
Gas Turbine 38.0
Steam Turbine
High Pressure 22.8
Low Pressure
Total Gross
Total Net
Gross Plant Efficiency (%)
2.1
62.9
56.0
36.4
1-14
NEPCO, the architectural and engineering firm;
Battelle; and the United States Department of
Energy. Additionally,
who will be evaluating the technology
other program participants
and inves
tigating future applications are: Weyerhaeuser,
Sauder Woodworking, Centerior Energy, the
State of Iowa, New York State ERDA, General
Electric, the United States Environmental Protec
tion Agency, and others.
Zurn will have exclusive rights to engineering,
procurement and construction for the technology
in North America for 10 years.
####
ENVIRONMENT
CARBON DIOXIDE ENRICHMENT NOT
ALWAYS BENEFICIAL TO PLANTS
The United States Department of Energy's
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) has
reported on a 2-year experimental program that
studied carbon-dioxide enrichment in cotton
plants. The program was conducted using a
BNL-developed system that exposes plants to
elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide under
natural conditions. The system is called FACE,
for Free-Air Carbon-dioxide Enrichment. It is
designed to assess the biological consequences
of global change.
Results of the experimental program, which was
carried out in Maricopa, Arizona, from 1989 to
1991, were recently published in a special edition
of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology.
Among the findings, according to BNL, is that the
more carbon dioxide a plant gets, the more it is
able to tolerate drought and to use water effi
ciently. But that does not necessarily mean that
carbon-dioxide enrichment is all good. Experi
ments with wheat show that food or animal fod
der grown under higher carbon-dioxide condi
tions may be of lower quality, due to a decrease
THE SYNTHETIC FUELS REPORT, JANUARY 1995