Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat content. When removed from the ground, it contains a very high amount of moisture which partially explains its low carbon content. Lignite is mined all around the world and is used almost exclusively as a fuel for steam-electric power generation.
A fossil fuel power station is a thermal power station which burns a fossil fuel, such as coal or natural gas, to produce electricity. Fossil fuel power stations have machinery to convert the heat energy of combustion into mechanical energy, which then operates an electrical generator. The prime mover may be a steam turbine, a gas turbine or, in small plants, a reciprocating gas engine. All plants use the energy extracted from the expansion of a hot gas, either steam or combustion gases. Although different energy conversion methods exist, all thermal power station conversion methods have their efficiency limited by the Carnot efficiency and therefore produce waste heat.
CU is the designation of a line for high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission between the Coal Creek Station power plant south of Underwood, North Dakota at 47°22′24″N101°9′23″W and the Dickinson converter station near Buffalo, Minnesota at 45°06′40″N93°48′36″W.
Duke Energy Corporation is an American electric power and natural gas holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.
NLC India Limited (NLC) is a government-owned-fossil fuel miner and thermal power generator under the ownership of Ministry of Coal, Government of India. It annually produces about 30 million tonnes of Lignite from opencast mines at Neyveli in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India and at Barsingsar in Bikaner district of Rajasthan state. The lignite is used at pithead thermal power stations of 3640 MW installed capacity to produce electricity. Its joint venture has a 1000 MW thermal power station using coal. Lately, it has diversified into renewable energy production and installed 1404 MW solar power plant to produce electricity from photovoltaic (PV) cells and 51 MW electricity from windmills.
The Dakota Gasification Company is a synthetic natural gas producing company founded in 1984 in Beulah, North Dakota, United States. It is an operator of the Great Plains Synfuels Plant. The plant is located at 47°21′27.75″N101°50′28.72″W. The plant uses lignite coal to produce synthetic natural gas utilizing a coal gasification process. The plant processes 16 thousand tons of coal daily. Coal is oxidized to coal gas, which is then converted from a mixture of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen to methane, by hydrogenation over a nickel catalyst. The synthetic natural gas is pipelined to the Northern Border Pipeline which transports gas from Canada, Montana and North Dakota to the Ventura, Iowa area, where the pipeline interconnects with many pipelines supplying the eastern United States. The Dakota Gasification Company is a subsidiary of the Basin Electric Power Cooperative which is located in Bismarck, North Dakota. On August 16, 2021, it was announced Bakken Energy would be acquiring the Dakota Gasification Company to be transformed to a blue hydrogen project.
Eraring Power Station is a coal-fired power station consisting of four 720 MW Toshiba steam driven turbo-alternators for a combined capacity of 2,880 MW. The station is located near the township of Dora Creek, on the western shore of Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia and is owned and operated by Origin Energy. It is Australia's largest power station. The plant has two smokestacks rising 200 m (656 ft) in height.
A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a third of the world's electricity, but cause many illnesses and early deaths, mainly from air pollution.
Oak Creek Power Plant, also known as South Oak Creek, is a base load, coal- and natural gas-fired, electrical power station located on Lake Michigan in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Oak Creek Power Plant along with Elm Road Generation Station make up the entire Oak Creek Generating Site.
Blue Flint Ethanol is a bioethanol producing company and a production plant with a same name, located in Underwood, North Dakota approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of Bismarck. The plant is unique in the fact that rather than burning fuels, such as coal or natural gas to drive the production process, waste heat from electrical generation at the Coal Creek Station is used. The US$100 million plant is capable of processing 18 million bushels of corn to produce 50 million gallons of ethanol each year, and is estimated to have a net annual economic impact of $160 million on the North Dakota economy, as well as the creation of approximately 40 new jobs to run the plant. In addition to producing ethanol the plant will also produce dry distillers grains, a byproduct of the distillation process which is used as animal feed. Of the 18 million bushels of corn used each year for feedstock, the majority will be grown in southeast North Dakota and brought in via rail, with the remaining one third being produced locally. In 2006 the Blue Flint Ethanol project was awarded the Project of the Year Award by Governor John Hoeven.
Agios Dimitrios Power Station is a power plant located near Agios Dimitrios, Kozani, Greece, situated between the towns of Kozani and Ellispontos village. In terms of its location in relation to a metropolis, the plant lies 140 kilometres (87 mi) west of Thessaloniki, a major city in northern Greece.
Tuzla Thermal Power Plant is a coal-fired thermal power plant in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the largest power plant in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is operated by Elektroprivreda Bosne i Hercegovine (EBiH).
The Brandon Shores Generating Station is an electric generating station located on Fort Smallwood Road north of Orchard Beach in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, near Glen Burnie, and is operated by Raven Power Holdings, Inc. Brandon Shores consists of two Babcock & Wilcox coal-fired boilers and two General Electric steam turbines with a combined nominal generating capacity of 1370 MWe. Unit 1 went into operation in May 1984 and Unit 2 in May 1991.
Boundary Dam Power Station is the largest coal fired station owned by SaskPower, located near Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Coal gasification is a process whereby a hydrocarbon feedstock (coal) is converted into gaseous components by applying heat under pressure in the presence of steam. Rather than burning, most of the carbon-containing feedstock is broken apart by chemical reactions that produce "syngas." Syngas is primarily hydrogen and carbon monoxide, but the exact composition can vary. In Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) systems, the syngas is cleaned and burned as fuel in a combustion turbine which then drives an electric generator. Exhaust heat from the combustion turbine is recovered and used to create steam for a steam turbine-generator. The use of these two types of turbines in combination is one reason why gasification-based power systems can achieve high power generation efficiencies. Currently, commercially available gasification-based systems can operate at around 40% efficiencies. Syngas, however, emits more greenhouse gases than natural gas, and almost twice as much carbon as a coal plant. Coal gasification is also water-intensive.
The Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center (VCHEC) is a power station located in St. Paul, in Wise County, Virginia. It is operated by Dominion Virginia Power, Dominion Resources Inc.'s electric distribution company in Virginia. The 600 MW plant began power generation in July 2012 after four years of construction. The plant deploys circulating fluidized bed boiler technology (CFB) to use a variety of fuel sources including bituminous coal, coal gob, and bio-fuels. VCHEC is placed under stringent environmental regulations by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
