Water Research Center Paves Way for Better Water Quality, Conservation in Power Industry

By Art Haddaway, WaterWold Editor

When it comes to generating electricity, power plants require a substantial amount of freshwater for a variety of manufacturing processes and operations, including extracting fuel, generating steam, controlling polluted emissions, and especially cooling their facilities. Sometimes this water is withdrawn from a local source and returned for potential reuse; sometimes it is consumed, meaning it is removed from the environment, primarily through evaporation.

Considered a water-intensive industry, the electric power sector relies heavily on water resources to efficiently produce and maintain energy. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), electric power generation is "responsible for more than 40 percent of freshwater withdrawals in the United States -- on the order of 100 billion gallons per day in 2008 -- primarily for cooling."

To support the development of new methods for reducing the amount of water used in power plants, Georgia Power recently launched its new Water Research Center at Plant Bowen near the city of Cartersville, Ga. The facility will feature a state-of-the-art workshop focused on researching ways to conserve water, as well as improving the quality of water returned to the environment from energy utilities. Further, the $12-million facility serves to discover and promote new and forthcoming technologies that will improve the overall water footprint of power plants across the nation.

"The Center will yield industry-wide insights that will help Georgia Power and other utility companies minimize the use of water in power plants and increase conservation of one of our most valuable natural resources," said Jeff Wilson, project manager for the Water Research Center. "It is an innovative collaboration between public and private entities focusing on developing revolutionary technologies with real-world applications that will be deployed to improve the management of water use across the entire energy industry."

The first facility of its kind, the Water Research Center was established through a partnership between Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Southern Research Institute, along with 14 other power-related companies. The Center opened its doors in November 2013 and serves as an extension of a pilot conservation project that originated in May 2010 at Plant Bowen to study water balances and identify opportunities for improved water preservation. Wilson noted that the Center focuses on combining conservancy with regulatory compliance and aims to enable power plants to address challenges relating to both.

With regard to these challenges, a recent UCS report indicated that water withdrawals can possibly threaten aquatic wildlife such as plants and fish by trapping them in utilities' water intake systems. The returned water can also be harmful to these species and the environment, as it is potentially discharged in excess at a higher temperature. Further, groundwater extractions can possibly deplete local aquifers essential to surrounding areas. As for consumption, the amount of water available for other uses, including sustaining ecosystems, can potentially be reduced.

Accordingly, the power industry continues to face increasing water use and quality regulations imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that limit the amount of effluent generated and discharged from these sites. These guidelines include various steam ejections and other emissions control measures, as well as some pollution control statutes, such as the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). Power plants, therefore, are required to implement efficient water quality and conservation strategies in order to meet these demanding standards.

"Over the last five to 10 years, we've seen a real shift in the importance of water, and now we're seeing a shift from the EPA as well on some of the regulations they're putting out toward water," said Wilson. "We are seeing that seasonally, geographically and situationally, water is stressed, and water availability is absolutely crucial to us; we must be able to optimize our water use and minimize that footprint," he said. "Finding new ways to protect water resources and use them more efficiently is a priority for Georgia Power."

Source

Media

Taxonomy

• Wastewater Treatment
• Water Quality
• Water Harvesting