February 2015 - Air Filtration Insights 43

An April-May feature article in Filtration News by Bob McIlvaine of the McIlvaine Company

Filtration purchasers and specifiers do not have to understand the chemistry, physics, or other scientific aspects of filtration. All they have to do is find the options which are available and determine the advantages and disadvantages of each. Filtration News and McIlvaine Company are teaming to provide this critical information in the range of filter choices from resins through filter elements.

Four areas of immediate focus are hot gas filtration, gas turbine inlet filtration, coalescing filters for oil and gas and reverse osmosis membranes. The June –July issue of Filtration News will be devoted to the options available in hot gas filtration. This article will be based on analyses being posted to a free McIlvaine web site Hot Gas Filters - Continuous Analyses. The site covers the entire hot gas decision making process. The sub-set of data focused on the resins through filters will also be displayed on a special Filtration News site. The McIlvaine site will be most useful to end users and system suppliers. The Filtration News site will be most useful to those making the resin, fiber, component, and media decisions.

The world’s knowledge resides in small niches. Therefore, the classification effort needs to involve the niche experts at each step along the way. The determination of the best option is greatly enhanced by face-to-face debates and discussions among experts. A third partner in this whole initiative is AFS who will provide this interface at the AFS Filtration and Separations at the Power Generation Conference on April 28-29^th in Charlotte, NC. A debate/discussion session on hot gas filtration options will be conducted from 10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday the 29^th. This will be preceded by relevant speeches on Tuesday the 28^th. Conclusions from that meeting will be reflected in the June article in Filtration News.

The decision making process can be likened to a trip using GPS. When you take a wrong turn, a voice tells you to recalibrate and provides new instructions. In Hot Gas Filtration there will be lots of wrong turns and recalibration. McIlvaine has coined the term Global Decisions Positioning System™ (GDPS) to describe the whole trip back and forth among decision trees. Here is the GDPS route for hot gas filter decisions in the power industry.

GDPS Route Map for Decisions Relative to Hot Gas Filtration for Power Plants

The decision relative to removing particles from the hot gas stream cannot be made independent of conclusions reached in the other decision trees. Filters can remove mercury and with sorbents can remove acid gases. The new catalytic filters can also remove NO_x. So the decision maker must travel back and forth among the particulate, NO_x, acid gas and air toxics decision trees.

If you choose a filter which not only removes particulate but also acid gases with sorbents, the resulting mix cannot be sold. So the power plant must decide whether it wants to sell its flyash or lower capital cost with a combined system.

Some filters will not tolerate the acid levels encountered with high sulfur fuels. Does the power plant want to limit its ability to buy cheap fuels? This may depend on the anticipated life of the plant. There are many new regulations which could shorten the economic life of coal-fired power plants. These regulation impacts have to be simultaneously evaluated.

One of the most worrisome regulatory threats is limitation of greenhouse gases. The catalytic ceramic filter element will produce clean gas at 850^oF. The recovery of that heat will greatly increase boiler efficiency and reduce greenhouse gases.

This very large GDPS route includes detailed travel in specific decision trees. In the case of hot gas filtration, this involves a wide choice of media. John McKenna is a world expert on media selection. He has been involved in McIlvaine “Hot Topic Hour” discussions on the subject. Here is his presentation of media options as displayed on the site.

The decision maker has to weigh cost vs. the various properties. Some fabrics have higher temperature resistance and others higher acid resistance. A new technology pioneered by URS and others involves injection of sorbent ahead of the air heater. This allows greater heat recovery without fear of acid condensation. A collateral benefit is the ability to use lower temperature media with less acid resistance. Does this open the door for acrylics? John and other experts such as Clint Scoble of Testori will be available during the session to address such questions.

The devil is in the details. Each aspect of filtration design needs be evaluated. One topic introduced by McIlvaine is the bleed through of activated carbon and other particulate along the seams of the bags. The new regulations require very low emissions of particulate. The dust which can escape through holes made by sewing the bags is sufficient to cause exceedances. Sewing holes enlarge as a bag is continually pulsed (as many as 50,000 times during its life). A utility participating in McIlvaine webinars explained that activated carbon was observed on the clean side of the bags. This carbon along with abrasive ash wedged between the bag surface and the cage and was reducing bag life as well as causing emission problems.

McIlvaine made some disturbing calculations. The amount of mercury in the escaping carbon could be enough to cause a mercury exceedance. Since the mercury limit is 1,000 times lower than the discrete particulate limit and since the carbon captures the mercury, the escaping carbon could be a very severe problem.

W.L. Gore has addressed this problem by tapes which cover the sewing holes in the bags that it provides. McIlvaine has yet to hear from the other bag suppliers but expects them to speak up at the AFS conference and for useful discussion and debate to occur. The fact that this GDPS initiative will plough new ground is illustrated by the fact that EPA is still a step behind on this subject. The EPA mercury measurement requirement is based only on the measurement of the gaseous form. Uncontrolled plants only emit mercury gases so the EPA decision was superficially logical. EPA failed to take into account that the process for capturing the mercury converts it from a gas to a particulate. McIlvaine webinars are establishing that particulate mercury emissions at a number of controlled plants are the main mercury source.

This could be the ultimate demonstration of the horse shoe failure which caused the battle to be lost. EPA requires limits of mercury equivalent to 0.005 milligrams/Nm3. Discrete particulate limits are 5 mg/Nm3. When EPA and the environmentalists discover the fact that particulate mercury emissions can be significant, we may face a situation where media suppliers have to provide media with orders of magnitude lower emissions. System suppliers are already complaining that leaks around the tube sheet holding the bags can be enough to make the 5 mg/Nm3 difficult to achieve.

What is a problem for one is an opportunity for another. Suppliers of adhesives, seals and even more rugged bags which resist pin holes can likely develop a big new market. The direct applicability is the coal-fired power industry in North America. The larger opportunity is hot gas applications in many industries and many countries.

China is likely to gut the housings of its coal-fired precipitators and insert bags. The driver is tough new regulations. The limited space dictates pleated rather than tubular bags. Pleated bags are more expensive, but with more effort, maybe the industry can make these bags more competitive. So here is another opportunity which may involve many different filter components and even coatings to provide rigidity.

There are other large hot gas applications which need to be addressed. China is planning to obtain much of its gasoline, chemicals and pipeline gas from conversion of coal. The process requires gasification of the coal and then filtration. Porvair has been successful in obtaining orders for its metal filters for this application in India, South Korea and China. Clarcor Purolator through its acquisition of Bekaert technology has experience on a wide range of applications for metal filter media. Some studies show the ability to obtain higher flows at equivalent pressure drop than with the ceramic elements. Pavlos PAPADOPOULOS of Clarcor will be in the AFS discussion and will be available during the conference to discuss these applications. Future articles in Filtration News will cover the applications in coal gasification, solid waste combustion, glass furnaces, mining, etc.

One of the largest potential media developments is the catalytic filter. The website has performance data on Clear Edge catalytic ceramic media filters in conjunction with sodium sorbents on many hot gas applications. The ability to filter and remove acid gases and NO_x all in the same device is very important. Haldor Topsoe and FLS think this type of device is important enough to set up an entire joint venture around it.

Another novel device is the Gore mercury module. The sorbent polymer composite resides in a series of modules. Six modules can achieve up to 95 percent removal. It can be placed downstream of a scrubber. The combined efficiency can easily be above 99 percent. So this provides an alternative to the hot gas filter with carbon injection but also a way to change the whole industry. Mercury regulations are continually moving to lower limits based on maximum achievable control technology. A combination which can achieve 99 percent removal at reasonable cost will drive a new round of international regulations.

Attendees at the AFS meeting will be advised to view the Hot Gas Filters - Continuous Analyses .in advance. This should ensure a high level discussion at the conference. The June article will benefit from continuing additions to the site and the intelligence gained at the conference. The combined efforts will provide the most relevant decision options and GDPS routes.

Celanese Corporation Reports Record Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2014 Results

Many projects, mergers and acquisitions are detailed in monthly updates in the Market Report’s Chapters under Industry Analysis.

Estimates of US GDP growth for 2014's fourth quarter have been rising in recent months, but the current outlook still anticipates a substantial slowdown from Q3's strong advance. The economy is projected to increase 3.6% in Q4 (real seasonally adjusted rate), based on The Capital Spectator's new median point forecast for several econometric estimates. That's a solid rate of growth, but the latest outlook still represents a substantially lesser pace vs. the 5.0% increase previously reported for Q3.(The remaining text is not included in this sample.)

China's 2015 GDP growth forecast has been maintained at 6.8 percent, as further policy support and export recovery is expected to help bolster the sluggish economy, according to UBS.

"December and Q4's better than expected data will unlikely trigger any immediate significant new easing measures for now, but the first rate cut may happen (around) March or April, when even lower CPI (consumer price index) and PPI (producer price index) are reported," said Wang Tao, chief China economist with UBS, said in a research note.

Wang added that policy support will intensify in 2015 with accelerated pro-growth measures in areas such as price, social safety net and hukou (household registration) reform, and more infrastructure projects.

Further monetary easing via liquidity provisions, including required reserve ratio cuts, is expected to offset slower foreign exchange reserve accumulation and benchmark rate cuts of at least 50 basis points are also expected to prevent real rates from rising, according to UBS…(The remaining text is not included in this sample.)

Media reports have claimed the German government has revised its 2015 growth outlook for the national economy in 2015. It said GDP would grow by 1.5 percent this year, up from a previous and more cautious estimate.

According to reports by Reuters and AFP news agencies, the German government sees GDP growth come in at 1.5% this year, up from an earlier estimate of just 1.3% for the whole of 2015.

The figures are part of the government's 2015 Economic Outlook to be presented by Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel during an official news conference in Berlin.

The draft document says the improved outlook is mainly down to continuously low oil prices and the most recent labor market data.

The German economy is "in good shape," the report says, with more people than ever having a job and the unemployment rate expected to drop further to 6.6% in 2015, down from 6.7% last year. This would leave 2.9 million people out of work in the country in the course of the year…(The remaining text is not included in this sample.)

A complete analysis of GDP and monthly updates for individual countries are included as part of Air Filtration and Purification World Markets.

This includes only projects where there was an update during the month. There are thousands of projects in the database.

New power generation projects are tracked in two publications. Fossil and Nuclear Power Generation includes both market forecasts and project data. World Power Generation Projects has just the project data.

Startup Date	Location	Fuel Comment	Project Title
Unknown	Argentina		Atucha 3 power plant
Unknown	Armenia		Metsamor-Armenia replacement nuclear power plant
Unknown	Azerbaijan		Azerbaijan nuclear power plant
Unknown	Bahrain		Bahrain nuclear power plant
Unknown	Bolivia		Bolivia nuclear power plant
Unknown	Canada		Point Lepreau 2-NB Power
Unknown	China		Lianyungang 1,2-GCNPC
Unknown	China		Taohuajiang 1-4 nuclear power plant-CNNC
Unknown	China		Shidaowan-China Huaneng Group
Unknown	China		Shaoguan 1-4 nuclear power plant-China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding
Unknown	China		Shandong Shidaowan-Huaneng
Unknown	China		Sanmen 3-6 expansion-CNNC
Unknown	China		Sanba nuclear power plant-China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group
Unknown	China		Rongcheng, Shiaowan-CGNPC and Huaneng NPDC
Unknown	China		Taohuajiang-CNNC
Unknown	China		Ningde 5,6-CGNPC
Unknown	China		Jinzhouwan
Unknown	China		Jingyu 1-4-CPI and Guodian
Unknown	China		Hui'an/Fuqing 2 Units 3-6-CNNC
Unknown	China		Pengze 3,4-CPI
Unknown	China		Tianwan 3,4 Phase II nuclear power plant-Jiangsu Nuclear power Corp.
Unknown	China		Heyuan (Jieyang) power plant
Unknown	China		Tianwan 7,8-CNNC
Unknown	China		Shidaowan nuclear power plant-Huaneng
Unknown	China		Tianwei 1,2, Lufeng-CGNPC
Unknown	China		Xiangtan 1-4-Huadian
Unknown	China		Xianning (Dafan) 4-CGNPC
Unknown	China		Xiaomoshan 1-6-CPI
Unknown	China		Xinyang 1-4-CGNPC?
Unknown	China		Xudabao 1,2 nuclear power plant
Unknown	China		Yangjiang 5,6-CGNPC
Unknown	China		Zhangzhou 1,2 nuclear power plant-China Guodian Corp.
Unknown	China		Zhexi 1-2nuclear power plant-CNNC
Unknown	China		Zhexi/Longyou 3,4-CNNC
Unknown	China		Tianwan 5,6-CNNC
unknown	China		Guidong-CPI
Unknown	China		Changjiang 3,4-CNNC and Huaneng
Unknown	China		Dafan/Gaokeng-CGNPC
Unknown	China		Cangnan-CGNPC/Huaneng
Unknown	China		Bailong/Fangchengang 2 Units 3-6-CGNPC
Unknown	China		Bamaoshan, Wuhu 3,4-CGNPC
Unknown	China		Changde nuclear power plant (Hengyang)-CNNC
Unknown	China		Baisha Pingman 1-4-CPI
Unknown	China		Fuling 1-4-CPI
Unknown	China		Haijia Haifeng 1,2-CGNPC
Unknown	China		Haiyang 3,4-CPI
Unknown	China		Haiyang 5,6-CPI
Unknown	China		Haiyang 7,8-CPI
Unknown	China		Hengren 1-4-CPI
Unknown	CO		Colorado Energy Park nuclear power plant