Life cycle assessment of electricity generation from coal utilized in power plants : a case study from Thailand | |
| Author | Lalita Tejavibulya |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.EV-13-08 |
| Subject(s) | Electricity--Thailand Coal-fired power plants--Thailand |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Environmental Engineering and Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Coal has a large share of a utility power generation in Thailand, accounting for approximately 22.7 percent of all utility produce electricity (EPPO, 2011). Hence, understanding the environmental profile of an electric generation from coal is an important component of any plan to reduce resource consumption and total emissions. In order to examine the environmental aspects of current and future pulverized coal fired power plant, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on the production of electric from coal was performed. LCA is a systematic analytical method that helps identify, evaluate, and minimize the environmental impacts of a specific process. Material and energy balance are used to quantify energy and resource consumption, and emissions of all life cycle stage between coal extraction, transportation, electric generation, and landfill disposal of bottom ash and flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum. Upstream processes required for the operation of these systems were also included in this study. The results are then used to evaluate the environmental impacts of the process, thus efforts can be focused on reducing possible effects. The ReCiPe method and SimaPro 7.3.3 software was used to evaluate the environmental impacts with the functional unit of 1 kWh. The results shows that climate change category was the main impact to human health (1.945E-06 DALY) and ecosystems (1.102E-08 species∙yr), and fossil depletion category was the main impact to resources availability (4.508 $). Moreover, the single score also shows that the electric generation and mining process is the main stage which contributed to the overall impact. The substance contributing most to climate change was CO₂(98.26 percent) mostly generated from direct emission in an electricity generation stage, whereas fossil depletion was contributed from extraction of lignite (93.13 percent) in ground mostly seen from the mining process. Overall, finding ways to reduce the amount of coal being consumed, while still producing the same amount of electricity, offers the best opportunity to mitigate the emissions and resource consumption. For example, one percent of improvement of power plant efficiency reduced a coal consumption rate, fossil depletion and climate change category at 3.351E-02 kg coal per kWh,9.04E-03 kg oil eq per kWh, and 4.16E-02 kg CO₂ eq per kWh, respectively. Therefore, improving the efficiency of the plant had the largest effect, since the change in the amount of coal not only changes the stressors directly associated with coal combustion, but also those stressors from upstream processes that are proportional how much coal is used. Moreover, an application of 90 percent NOx reduction capacity reduce impact on photochemical oxidant formation, particulate matter formation, terrestrial acidification and marine eutrophication, 1.444E-03kg NMVOC eqper kWh, 3.178E-04kg PM10eqper kWh, 8.087E-04kg SO₂eqper kWh, and 5.634E-05kg N eqper kWh, respectively. |
| Year | 2013 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Environmental Engineering and Management (EV) |
| Chairperson(s) | Annachhatre, Ajit P.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Shipin, Oleg V.;Bohez, Erik L. J.; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Royal Thai Government;Asian Institute of Technology Fellowship; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2013 |