Thursday, May 01, 2008 So: A coal plant tour By Michelle P. So Caught in the Net
IN the complicated interiors of a coalfired power plant, a wrong turn can lead either to the tattooed arms of an operator or to the fiery mouth of the coal burner.
An afternoon tour of the Apec power plant in Mabalacat, Pampanga last Monday was arranged by Global Business Power Corp. with an aim to show us how the coal power plant that is being built in Sangi, Toledo City, Cebu will run.
The Apec power plant uses a modern “clean coal-fired technology” that Global Power, together with Aboitiz Power Corp. and Vivant Energy Corp., will be employing in Sangi.
So, is a coal power plant safe and clean?
As long as no film producer shoots gangster movies inside the plant and therefore no ketchup blood is shed, I say it is. And I say this not because I am a quack expert on coal power but because of what I saw in the vicinity of the plant and of what I heard from Andel Bacalla, the Apec operations superintendent who patiently explained to media people the intricacy of the coal power process.
The Sangi power plant, which will take until 2010 to build, is expected to generate 246 megawatts that will be powered by coal. The volume is expected hold off power fluctuations caused by the depleting power supply in Cebu due to an increasing demand.
The technology involves terms such as steam turbine, boiler island, electrostatic precipitation, desalinated/de-mineralized water, BTU/lb as received, BTU/lb air-dried, fly ash silo, coal yard, continuous emission monitoring system (Cems), heating value, seawater cooling, closed conveyor transport, no smoking. If used with engineering logic and with other words that engineers drop every day, the terms produce what is called “clean coal-fired technology.”
I almost forgot to mention coal, the most vital component in the technology, and silica sand, the second most vital component. Truth is, everything in this technology is vital because the absence of one component incapacitates the operation.
So, is the technology safe and clean?
From Bacalla?s point, yes. Using finger gestures, he said:
First, transportation. Immediately after the coal is loaded in the truck, cargo is covered and secured with tarpaulin. The whole time the coal is transported from Bataan (or wherever the cargo is coming from) to Pampanga, no coal is dropped.
Second, handling. Apec makes sure that correct procedures of ingress and egress of the cargo and all operational systems are observed. For example, after unloading the cargo, a truck passes a sensor that activates a carwash and is cleaned of whatever coal and silica sand get stuck in it.
Third, technology. It’s modern, computerized and pollutant-free. (Bacalla used more than these three adjectives but I am summing it up for here.)
And from my point, yes. Using my five senses, I say but do not conclude: There is no black emission from the smoke stack. The trees around the 6.5-hectare Apec compound are green and leafy like vegetables, the compound is clean and doesn’t smell except in the area near the paper sludge yard, the roofs of houses are not covered in soot, and the erotically-shaped Mount Arayat is visible from the compound.
I sort of have an idea now how the coal power plant in Sangi, Toledo will look. I hope to see the same operational safeguards that Apec uses in Mabalacat because I don’t want to find myself lost in the plant.
