Water chemistry in power plants – Site tour of an Indian delegation
From 22 to 30 August 2019 an Indian delegation visited several coal fired power plants and laboratories in Germany and the Netherlands. The visits aimed at gaining insights into water chemistry concepts as well as into investigation methods applied in the operation of coal fired power plants. They formed a part of a project which the VGB is conducting for an Indian consortium consisting of the power producer NTPC, BHEL (Bharat Heavy Industries Limited) and IGCAR (Indira Gandhi Center of Atomic Research). The project comprises a peer review of the consortium's proposed water chemistry concept for a 700°C power plant.
The site tour included visits to GKM and Eemshaven power plants as well as to several laboratories:
- VGB laboratories for oil, water and material investigations in Essen and Gelsenkirchen
- Catalyst laboratory of LABORELEC Germany in Gelsenkirchen
- RUHR Lab GmbH (fuel and by product analysis) in Gelsenkirchen and
- SYNLAB Analytics & Services LAG GmbH (fuel, by products, oil, water) in Jänschwalde
- Material laboratory of VPC GmbH in Jänschwalde
Further visits to the measurement group of VPC GmbH in Jänschwalde as well as to the autoclave test rig at TU Dortmund completed the site tour program.
About the Indian 700°C R&D Program
The Indian Advanced Ultra Super Critical program is being carried out under the auspices of the Government of India by the consortium of NTPC, BHEL and IGCAR – it consists of two phases:
- Phase I is the R&D phase for technology development
- Phase II involves the installation of an 800 MW unit with steam parameters of more than 300 bar and 710°C/720°C
Phase I was approved by the Indian Government in 2016. The R&D work officially started in April 2017 and is expected to end in September 2019. In phase II, a technology demonstration plant will be set up at NTPC's Sipat site. The R&D program includes subprojects on all relevant topics, such as Plant design, material development / qualification, manufacturing technology development or water chemistry. The VGB has been conducting the peer review on the water chemistry concept of the demonstration plant since the end of March 2019; the official end date of the project was 30 September 2019.