POWER August 2016 - 35

WATER AWARD
Huaneng Power's Changxing
Station ZLD Project, China
Courtesy: Oasys Water
To satisfy China's more stringent water use and air pollution rules, developers of
the new 1.3-GW ultrasupercritical coal-fired Changxing Power Plant used a
novel forward osmosis-based brine concentration and water reuse process
to treat flue gas desulfurization wastewater for zero liquid discharge (ZLD).
It is the world's first commercial application of this technology.
Sonal Patel
C
hina's current economic development
has been marred by complex
water resource constraints-both of
quantity and quality-that span a number of
geographical, political, economic, and social
factors.
Large areas of northern China, including
parts of Handong, Henan, Hebei, Shanxi,
Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Xinjiang, and
Shaanxi, are extremely water-stressed, yet
these are the same regions where the country's
coal power boom is happening. According
to the Platts World Electric Power Plant
Database and the World Resources Institute's
Aqueduct water risk analysis model, power
plants located in those " red-list " areas had
an annual water consumption of 3.4 billion
cubic meters (m3
withdrawal of 29 billion m3
), with an estimated water
.
Meanwhile, the data suggest that 48%
of proposed coal-fired power plants in the
country-237 GW worth-are slated for
construction in water " over-withdrawal "
areas and could consume an additional 1.8
35
billion m3
6.5 billion m3
of water per year, withdrawing
annually. That's equivalent to
the basic annual needs of about 100 million
people. If business proceeds as usual, the
country will see 25% of its freshwater use
go to power plants by 2030, Bloomberg New
Energy Finance projected in 2013. However,
water scarcity and water quality challenges
have already left China's five biggest stateowned
power generators heavily exposed to
water supply disruptions.
A First-of-its-Kind Project Takes
Shape Amid the Chaos
Recognizing the risks that water scarcity and
quality poses to its energy future-and faced
with a predicament of also ensuring food
security-China's government has clamped
down hard.
In 2012, as part of its 12th Five-Year Plan,
Beijing adopted new industrial water rules
(detailed in the State Council document No.
[2012]3) that applied the strictest limits ever
to water intake and discharge. During that
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period, it also enacted legislation to curb
emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide,
particulates, and mercury from coal-fired
power plants, essentially mandating electrostatic
precipitators and flue gas desulfurization
(FGD) technology be installed across its
massive fleet.
For key government-owned power generation
enterprise China Huaneng Group, the
measures ultimately shaped how it designed
its Huaneng Changxing Power Plant, a 1.3GW
two-unit ultrasupercritical power plant
it was developing around that time. Final
plans for the state-of-the-art plant in Zhejiang
province, about three hours southwest
of Shanghai, called for twin 660-MW steam
generators (Units 7 and 8), as well as flue gas
pollution controls, including wet limestone
slurry FGD units built by Chinese power engineering
firm Wuhan Kaidi, based on technology
licensed from Babcock & Wilcox.
China Huaneng Group says it is driven to
enhance profitability, but it also holds industry-leading
competitiveness and sustainabilPOWER
| August 2016
http://www.powermag.com
POWER August 2016

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