Asbury Power Plant Emission Support
Air modeling to help a coal power plant safely meet increasing energy demands.
Coal power plants like the Asbury Power Plant in Joplin, Missouri, work hard to keep their emissions low in compliance with Environmental Protection Agency standards. In today’s dynamic energy market, electric utilities need the flexibility to ramp-up their coal boilers at a moment’s notice if called upon to provide low-cost electricity. This means emissions from coal boilers can fluctuate quickly. Having this operational flexibility to meet the demands of the energy market without affecting air quality can be challenging, but GeoEngineers’ air quality experts helped Asbury Power Plant do just that.
Approach
Engineers at Asbury wanted the ability to adjust operations of their cyclone-fired coal boiler as needed. But unless they received an extension to the emission limit averaging time in their air permit, they were afraid that variations in the boiler’s particulate matter emissions could result in compliance issues. GeoEngineers developed an air dispersion model that predicted the affect this change to the boiler would have on the amount of particulate matter in the air.
Results
GeoEngineers’ model demonstrated that extending the average time for the boiler’s PM emission limit would not have any negative impact on air quality. With the plan validated, Asbury Power Plant could generate additional power when needed while still protecting public health and the environment.
