JEA Northside Generating Station in Jacksonville,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

is a major

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many pow ...

, one of the three power plants owned and operated by

JEA Kim Hyo-jin (Hangul: 김효진; born September 18, 1981) better known by her stage name JeA is a South Korean singer and songwriter. She is best known as the leader of South Korean girl group Brown Eyed Girls. As a solo artist, she has contri ...

, Jacksonville's municipal utilities service. It produces electricity by burning

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

and

petroleum coke Petroleum coke, abbreviated coke or petcoke, is a final carbon-rich solid material that derives from oil refining, and is one type of the group of fuels referred to as cokes. Petcoke is the coke that, in particular, derives from a final cracki ...

at Units 1 and 2, formerly the largest circulating

fluidized-bed A fluidized bed is a physical phenomenon that occurs when a solid particulate substance (usually present in a holding vessel) is under the right conditions so that it behaves like a fluid. The usual way to achieve a fluidize bed is to pump pressu ...

combustors, (CFBs), in the world. These combustors, completed in 2002 and rated at 297.5

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units, International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), ...

s each, produce enough electricity to light more than 250,000 households. In addition, Unit ST3 produces 505 megawatts of electricity by burning

residual fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractional distillation, fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residue (chemistry), residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils inclu ...

and/or

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

.The JEA Large-Scale CFB Combustion Demonstration Project, Clean Coal Technology, Topical Report Number 22, The U.S.Department of Energy and JEA (March, 2003)
/ref>

Location

The Northside Generating Station is located north-east of the interchange of Interstate 295 and State Road 105 in the city of Jacksonville, Florida. It is from the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

coastline, on the north bank of a back channel of the

St. Johns River The St. Johns River ( es, Río San Juan) is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and its most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders twelve counties. The drop in eleva ...

, which is being used as a

waterway A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other languages. A first distinction is necessary b ...

for fuel delivery as well as a source of cooling water. The Northside Generating Station also borders

Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve The Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve is a U.S. National Preserve in Jacksonville, Florida. It comprises of wetlands, waterways, and other habitats in northeastern Duval County. Managed by the National Park Service in cooperation with th ...

that consists of North Florida

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s and contains historic sites of

Timucua The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The var ...

peoples.

History

The Northside Generating Station began producing electricity for Jacksonville in March, 1966 with oil as its only fuel, when former Unit 1, rated at 275 megawatts, was installed. In June, 1972 a similar Unit 2 was launched, but had to be shut down in 1983 due to major boiler problems. A plant expansion in 1977 added a 564-megawatt Unit 3, which is still in operation today. This expansion enabled the use of oil and natural gas fuels. In 1996, JEA committed to reduce certain pollutants from the Northside Station by at least 10% when it upgraded Unit 2 (non-functional at the time) and Unit 1 by introducing the new

clean coal technology Coal pollution mitigation, sometimes called clean coal, is a series of systems and technologies that seek to mitigate the health and environmental impact of coal; in particular air pollution from coal-fired power stations, and from coal burnt b ...

.http://www.nsrp.org/lean/lean_forum06/Tour_Description_JEA_Northside_Power_Station.pdf This most recent upgrade was funded by JEA (234 million

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

) and the

U.S. Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States. ...

(75 million

). Initial synchronization was achieved for Unit 2 on February 19, 2002, and for Unit 1 on May 29, 2002. As a result, the facility generates significantly more power now.

CFB Technology

CFB technology is an advanced method for burning coal and other fuels efficiently while removing air emissions inside the sophisticated combustor system. CFB technology provides flexibility in utility operations because a wide variety of solid fuels can be used, including high-

sulfur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...

, high-

ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...

and

. In a CFB combustor, coal or other fuels, air, and crushed

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

or other

sorbent A sorbent is a material used to absorb or adsorb liquids or gases. Examples include: *A material similar to molecular sieve material, which acts by adsorption (attracting molecules to its surface). It has a large internal surface area and good t ...

s are injected into the lower portion of the combustor for initial burning of the fuel. The

combustion Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combusti ...

actually occurs in a bed of fuel, sorbent, and ash particles that are fluidized by air

nozzle A nozzle is a device designed to control the direction or characteristics of a fluid flow (specially to increase velocity) as it exits (or enters) an enclosed chamber or pipe. A nozzle is often a pipe or tube of varying cross sectional area, a ...

s in the bottom of the combustor. The air expands the bed, creates turbulence for enhanced mixing, and provides most of the

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...

necessary for combustion of the fuel. As the fuel particles decrease in size through combustion and breakage, they are transported higher in the combustor where additional air is injected. As the particles continue to decrease in size, unreacted fuel, ash, and fine limestone particles are swept out of the combustor, collected in a particle separator (also called a cyclone), and recycled to the lower portion of the combustor. This is the "circulating" nature of the combustor. Drains in the bottom of the combustor remove a fraction of the bed composed primarily of ash while new fuel and sorbent are added. The combustion ash is suitable for beneficial uses such as

road construction A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

material, agricultural

fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

, and reclaiming

surface mining Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...

areas. The limestone captures up to 98% of the sulfur impurities released from the fuel. When heated in the CFB combustor, the limestone, consisting primarily of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃), converts to

calcium oxide Calcium oxide (CaO), commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, Caustic (substance), caustic, alkaline, crystalline solid at room temperature. The broadly used term "''lime (material), lime''" co ...

(CaO) and CO₂ . The CaO reacts with the SO₂ from the burning fuel to form calcium sulfate (CaSO₄), an inert material that is removed with the combustion ash. The combustion efficiency of the CFB combustor allows the fuel to be burned at a relatively low temperature of about , thus reducing NO_x formation by approximately 60% compared with conventional coal-fired technologies. Greater than 99% of particulate emissions in the

flue gas Flue gas is the gas exiting to the atmosphere via a flue, which is a pipe or channel for conveying exhaust gases from a fireplace, oven, furnace, boiler or steam generator. Quite often, the flue gas refers to the combustion exhaust gas produced a ...

are removed downstream of the combustor by either an electrostatic precipitator or a fabric filter (baghouse). The heated combustor converts water in tubes lining the combustor's walls to high pressure steam. The steam is then superheated in tube bundles placed in the solids circulating stream and the

stream. The superheated steam drives a steam turbine-generator to produce electricity in a conventional steam cycle.

Fuel supply

The plant uses a continuous ship unloader, the only one of its type in the continental United States. The solid fuel is transferred from barges onto the fuel conveyor system, which in turn transports it to the two largest fuel storage domes in North America. Pet coke and coal travel from the ship to the domes in about twenty minutes, entirely inside a sealed system to prevent dust particles from escaping into the surrounding environment.

Water use

Water is delivered by an elevated intake flume from the back channel of the

to cool the station's condensers, after which the water is returned to the back channel. This cooling water does not mix with other liquid process streams while in contact with the condensers. Because Unit 2 has been out of service since 1983, the actual demand for cooling water by Northside Generating Station at full load since that time has been approximately 620 million

U.S. gallon The gallon is a unit of volume in imperial units and United States customary units. Three different versions are in current use: *the imperial gallon (imp gal), defined as , which is or was used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Austr ...

s per day (Mgd), or per

minute The minute is a unit of time usually equal to (the first sexagesimal fraction) of an hour, or 60 seconds. In the UTC time standard, a minute on rare occasions has 61 seconds, a consequence of leap seconds (there is a provision to insert a nega ...

, to operate Units 1 and 3. Operation of the entire 3-unit plant occurred only from about 1978 until 1980. During that time, the demand for cooling water was approximately 827 Mgd ( per minute): 24.5% for Unit 1, 24.5% for Unit 2, and 51% for Unit 3. This amount of surface water supplied to the station was approximately 10% of the average flow passing through the back channel of the St. Johns River. Before passing through the condensers, noncontact cooling water at Northside Generating Station is treated intermittently with a

biocide A biocide is defined in the European legislation as a chemical substance or microorganism intended to destroy, deter, render harmless, or exert a controlling effect on any harmful organism. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses a slig ...

to prevent biological growth on the heat exchanger tubes.

Sodium hypochlorite Sodium hypochlorite (commonly known in a dilute solution as bleach) is an Inorganic chemistry, inorganic chemical compound with the chemical formula, formula NaOCl (or NaClO), comprising a sodium cation () and a hypochlorite anion (or ). It may ...

(NaOCl) and occasionally

sodium bromide Sodium bromide is an inorganic compound with the formula Na Br. It is a high-melting white, crystalline solid that resembles sodium chloride. It is a widely used source of the bromide ion and has many applications.Michael J. Dagani, Henry J. Ba ...

(NaBr) are used. Treatment occurs no more than 2 hours per day per operating unit. The

Power Park taps into the discharge side of the Northside Generating Station condensers to obtain

cooling tower A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat and ...

makeup. The average surface water flow supplied to the Power Park heat rejection system is 50 Mgd ( per minute). Approximately 25% of this surface water evaporates into the

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...

from the cooling towers. Cooling tower blowdown is routed back into Northside Generating Station's discharge collector basin. The daily average temperature of the cooling tower blowdown is limited to .

Emissions

Preliminary Emission Tests were conducted on Units 1 and 2 over the summer of 2002. Testing was conducted on both units burning coal and petroleum coke. Results are summarized in the table below. Emissions results from both units met all emission requirements for particulate, SO₂, acid gases and heavy metals.

Conflicts and controversies

Soot coming from the JEA Northside Generating Station has prompted Distribution and Auto Services Inc. to threaten leaving Jacksonville area if the problem persists. Vehicle processing companies such as Auto Services Inc. prepare automobiles for dealers by cleaning, inspecting, customizing, and fixing defects. In 2001, such companies at Jacksonville processed 579,924 vehicles. Auto Services Inc. had to wash 50,000 cars to remove soot, the letter from the company's attorney said in 2002. The soot did not cause any damage to the vehicles, but a fallout occurring during a drizzle or when dew forms on vehicles could release acid that mars plastic equipment, the letter said. The JEA paid $82,000 to the vehicle-processing company to cover the cost of washing automobiles during the summer of 2002, according to JEA spokesman.Port tenant threatens pullout over soot 11/05/02
/ref>

References

External links

Data on generation and fuel consumption
from the

Energy Information Administration The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating energy information to promote sound policymaking, efficient markets, and publ ...

Electricity Data Browser {{DEFAULTSORT:Northside Generating Station Buildings and structures in Jacksonville, Florida Coal-fired power stations in Florida Northside, Jacksonville St. Johns River 1966 establishments in Florida Energy infrastructure completed in 1966