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Monday morning I had the privilege of touring FirstEnergy's largest coal-fired power plant, the Bruce Mansfield station in Shippingport, Pa. The Bruce Mansfield plant is one of 7 fossil plants that FirstEnergy owns and operates and almost 40 COAL-GEN delegates took the 45 minute bus ride to attend the tour as well.
The three unit 2,460 MW station is situated along the Ohio River about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. Unit 1, which was completed in 1976, generates 830 MW. Unit 2 came online a year later and also generates 830 MW. And 800 MW capacity Unit 3 came online in 1980. Upon arrival the generous hosts at FirstEnergy greeted us with a short introductory video and the tour was underway. Our tour guides, Jeff and Doug, gave us the full tour through the turbine room, the control room, past the pulverizers and boilers and even up to the roof of the plant. The entire tour was very informative but my personal favorite was getting out onto the roof of the plant. Although going up to the 17th floor was hotter than anything I have ever experienced, including humid Oklahoma summers, the view from the top was spectacular.From the roof we could see the operation of the plant. As well as a never-ending view down the Ohio River. On the river sit coal unloading stations for barges that deliver about 3,000 tons of coal per hour. The birds'-eye-view also gave us the opportunity to see the huge coal yard. A large coal yard is needed because the Bruce Mansfield plant burns nearly 24,000 tons of coal per day and more than 7 million tons annually.
Looking down on the air quality control systems (AQCS) we had the opportunity to see the scrubbers and absorbers between the boilers and the 950-foot tall chimney for Units 1 and 2. Unit 3 is equipped with with a precipiatator/absorber system consisting of four electrostatic precipitators, four induced draft fans, five parallel absorber modules and a 600-foot tall stack. All three units use Selective Catalytic Reduction systems to eliminate about 90 percent of nitrogen oxides from the flue gases. And with the use of the AQCS the Bruce Mansfield station removes 92 percent of sulfur dioxide from boiler flue gas.
A lot of people tend to refer to power plants by the "huge, clouds of smoke" coming from enormous towers. Although those plumes are not smoke, the towers are large and are attached to a plant. And the Bruce Mansfield plant does use cooling towers. The plant uses about 70 million gallons of water per day from the Ohio River. Three 410-foot cooling towers reduce the temperature of about 310,000 gallons of water per minute by 27 degrees. Cooling towers are so synonymous with power plants that it was only appropriate to take the group picture standing underneath the large structures.I can say the tour of the Bruce Mansfield plant was enjoyable for all participants, including myself. The 40 delegates from all over the globe were very enthusiastic about the operations of the plant and that made being the technical tour leader that much more enjoyable.