Potential environmental benefits of integrating flue gas quench in biomass/waste‐fueled CHP plants.

Due to stricter regulations, large biomass/waste incineration power plants are expected to reduce (i) pollutant emissions through water (such as organic compounds dissolved in the discharge water), (ii) the withdrawal of external freshwater, and (iii) the disturbance to the natural water by increasing the water recycle and internal reuse. To address such challenges, flue gas quench (FGQ) is playing a vital role that links flue gas (FG) cleaning and wastewater treatment. In this study, a detailed analysis based on the material and energy balance is performed regarding the pollutant distribution in the flue gas and the wastewater within a combined heat and power (CHP) plant. The real data from the reference CHP plant were used; and results show that the utilization of FGQ can result in less wastewater discharge (about 73 tonnes/d) together with less pollutant concentration to the municipal wastewater treatment plant, as compared to the system with only flue gas condenser but without FGQ. The integration of FGQ also results in less burden on the external freshwater use by increasing the amount of clean water for internal use (about 57 tonnes per day). In addition, the integration of FGQ can offer a potential annual energy saving of about 13.1 MWh in the municipal wastewater treatment plant due to the less wastewater coming from the CHP plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]