Plant Bowen Coal
Encyclopedia
Plant Bowen is a coal-fired
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 power station located just outside Euharlee, Georgia
Euharlee, Georgia
Euharlee is a city in Bartow County, Georgia, United States. The population was 3,208 at the 2000 census. The city's explosive growth is evident as of the 2005 census the city's population rose to 3,859, and for 2006 estimates, Euharlee showed a population of 4,059...

, United States, approximately 14 km (8.7 mi) west-south-west from Cartersville
Cartersville, Georgia
Cartersville is a town in Bartow County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 19,7314. The city is the county seat of Bartow County.-Geography:Cartersville was named for Colonel Farish Carter....

. At 3,499 megawatts, Plant Bowen has the second largest generating capacity of any coal-fired power plant in North America, and the largest in the United States; only Ontario Power Generation
Ontario Power Generation
Ontario Power Generation is a public company wholly owned by the Government of Ontario. OPG is responsible for approximately 70% of the electricity generation in the Province of Ontario, Canada. Sources of electricity include nuclear, hydroelectric, solar, wind, and fossil fuel...

's Nanticoke Generating Station
Nanticoke Generating Station
The Nanticoke Generating Station is the largest coal-fired power plant in North America, delivering up to 2,760 MW of power into the southern Ontario power grid from its base in Nanticoke, Ontario, Canada. Previous to unit shutdowns, its generating capacity was 3,964 MW. It is owned by...

 in Canada has more generating capacity. Plant Bowen ranked third in the nation for net generation in 2006 producing over 22,630,000 MWh
MWH
MWH may stand for:* International Air Transport Association airport code for Grant County International Airport* MWH Global, an international water engineering consultancy* Men Without Hats, a Canadian New Wave band...

. The station is connected to the southeastern power grid by numerous 500 KV transmission lines, and is owned and operated by Georgia Power
Georgia Power
Georgia Power is an electric utility headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is the largest of the four electric utilities that are owned and operated by Southern Company....

, a subsidiary of Southern Company
Southern Company
Southern Company is a public utility holding company of primarily electric utilities in the southern United States. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with executive offices also located in Birmingham, Alabama. The company is currently the 16th largest utility company in the world and the...

.

Bowen's four cooling towers are 116 m (381 ft) tall and 97 m (318 ft) in diameter and can cool 1100000 litres (290,589.2 US gal) per minute. Another 26000 litres (6,868.5 US gal) of water is lost to evaporation which creates the distinctive white clouds rising from each tower.

Bowen's two smokestacks are 300 m (984.3 ft) tall. Particulates are removed from the exhaust gases through the use of electrostatic precipitators. The exhaust gases are then closely monitored to comply with air quality regulations. In addition, SCR
Selective catalytic reduction
Selective catalytic reduction is a means of converting nitrogen oxides, also referred to as with the aid of a catalyst into diatomic nitrogen , , and water, . A gaseous reductant, typically anhydrous ammonia, aqueous ammonia or urea, is added to a stream of flue or exhaust gas and is absorbed...

 units have recently been constructed on all four units to meet federal clean air and ozone standards.

In 2006, Bowen was the largest emitter of sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is released by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide unless the sulfur compounds are removed before burning the fuel...

 in the United States (at 206442 ST (187,281,032 kg)), and ranked 39th worst in the nation in terms of sulfur dioxide emissions per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced. All four units at Bowen are scheduled for scrubber
Flue gas desulfurization
Sulfur dioxide is one of the elements forming acid rain. Tall flue-gas stacks disperse emissions by diluting the pollutants in ambient air and transporting them to other regions....

 installations. Through these efforts, such emissions will be reduced by as much as 95%. Construction began in 2005 on the first two of four scrubbers and will take three years to complete. The scrubbers at Bowen will be among the largest fiberglass vessels ever to be built in the United States. The facility is the third largest producer of carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...

, after Plant Scherer and James H. Miller Jr. Power Plant, emitting 20500000 ST (18,597,287,170 kg) of CO2 in the atmosphere each year.

See also


External links

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