Electric Power Plant Water Use in North Carolina: Forced Evaporation and Emission Controls
Date
2010-04-30
Author
Advisor
Patino Echeverri, Dalia
Repository Usage Stats
962
views
views
1,753
downloads
downloads
Abstract
The link between water use and electricity generation is very strong and largely omitted
from the public policies aimed at sustainable generation of electricity. Electricity
is required for treating and pumping water to its destination, and water is required
for electricity generation at thermoelectric power plants for cooling purposes, and
for the operation of environmental control devices that reduce air emissions.
North Carolina is ranked 9th in the United States for electricity total net production,
according to the Energy Information Administration. Thermoelectric power freshwater
withdrawals far outstrip all other water withdrawal categories; by the year 2000,
thermoelectric power freshwater withdrawals were approaching 8,000 million gallons
per day, and as the population continues to grow in North Carolina, that number can
only be expected to increase. They make some of the largest water withdrawals in the
state of North Carolina, but they only consume approximately 3% of the water they
intake.
The consumptive use percentage of 3% is misleading because it doesn’t take into account
forced evaporation. As mentioned previously, power plants require intake water to
use for cooling purposes in the electricity generation process. The withdrawn cooling
waters, once run through the plant, are returned to rivers/lakes at a higher temperature
than the ambient water temperature. This higher temperature water causes additional
evaporation (forced evaporation) from the river/lake. Forced evaporation should be
of particular concern to North Carolina due to the severe droughts that have occurred
in the region in recent history which threaten energy production as well as other
water uses (ex. drinking water supply).
In this project we find that forced evaporation represents an average 22% increase
in power plant water consumption in North Carolina, when compared to water consumption
occurring during electricity generation on-site.
We also look at the impact that air emission controls have on the plants water consumption.
If carbon emissions are required to be controlled in the future, then water use at
all power plants will increase, on average, approximately 5%.
The water lost to forced evaporation and emissions controls will add additional strain
to power plants located in drought prone regions.
Type
Master's projectPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/2194Citation
Morton, Victoria (2010). Electric Power Plant Water Use in North Carolina: Forced Evaporation and Emission
Controls. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/2194.Collections
More Info
Show full item record
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Rights for Collection: Nicholas School of the Environment
Works are deposited here by their authors, and represent their research and opinions, not that of Duke University. Some materials and descriptions may include offensive content. More info