Australian firm to help NTPC reduce pollution from power plants

NEW DELHI: Delhi’s airshed management will receive a boost with state-run generation utility NTPC introducing online coal analysers at its Dadri power plant near the national capital as part of a larger plan to reduce ash and other pollutants such as sulphur content in emission from its thermal units.
The 1820-MW (mega watt) power station is located in Gautam Budh Nagar district of UP adjoining Delhi.The plant is a major source of electricity for the national capital and its emission has a bearing on the city’s ambient air quality.
Called All Scan Elemental, the analysers from RTI (Real Time Instruments), a diversified Australian company specialising in online analysis of bulk material, are also being introduced in NTPC’s Unchahar plant in UP, Kahalgaon in Bihar, Bongaigaon in Assam, Farakka in West Bengal and Mouda in Maharashtra.
The analysers monitor coal quality in real time as the fuel is fed into the plant’s boiler-furnace by conveyor belts. Broadly, the system monitors parameters such as ash, sulphur, moisture and energy density, or heat content of coal.
Real time input helps power plants to maintain fuel quality — by blending higher grade of coal, if needed — to run plants efficiently. This ultimately reduces pollution by way of lowering ash and sulphur content in emission and also improves economic viability of the plant.
The analysers will help NTPC power plants to adhere to the 34% maximum ash content limit for coal set by the ministry of environment and forests. In 2014, the ministry had barred rail-fed power plants, situated at a distance of more than 500 kms from coal mines, from using fuel with more than 34% ash content on a quarterly basis.
In the absence of online analysers, power plants have to depend on lab tests of samples, which takes 24 hours.