Technical Tours

Bruce Mansfield Station
Date: Monday, August 9, 2010
Time:  8:30 AM - 1:00 PM (check-in at 8:00 AM: approximately 45-minute drive each way)
Fee:  $45
Space is limited.  Registration cut-off July 30, 2010 (no day-of registrations accepted)

At 2,460 MW capacity the Bruce Mansfield station is FirstEnergy’s largest coal-fired power plant and is around 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh in Shippingport, Penn. The three coal-fired units include Unit 1, which came online in 1976 and generates 830 MW; Unit 2, which came online in 1977, and generates 830 MW; and Unit 3, which came online in 1980 and generates 800 MW.

The plant uses more than 7 million tons of coal annually and employs around 500 people.

The plant is equipped with full-scale air quality control systems designed to remove virtually all particulates and 92 percent of the sulfur dioxide from boiler flue gases. Units 1 & 2 are equipped with scrubber trains located between the boilers and the 950-foot chimney. This two-stage scrubber/absorber system removes particulates and sulfur dioxide. Unit 3 is equipped with a precipitator/absorber system: four electrostatic precipitators, four induced draft fans, five parallel absorber modules and a 600-foot chimney. Units 1, 2 & 3 are equipped with Selective Catalytic Reduction systems for removal of nitrogen oxides from the flue gases.

The air quality control systems require about 150,000 tons of lime per unit each year, or 1 ton of lime for every 11 tons of coal. As a result, more than 400,000 tons of sulfur dioxide are removed from plant emissions each year. The coal and lime needs for the Bruce Mansfield Plant are handled through a docking facility on the Ohio River, the largest such inland facility in the U.S. Rail unloading capacity handles coal and aqueous ammonia delivery. At full capacity, each unit’s air quality control system can produce up to 4 million gallons of scrubber slurry daily.

A separate pollution control system is used to dispose of this slurry. It includes a treatment and pumping facility at the plant site, 7 miles of underground pipeline and a 1,300-acre disposal site, complete with the largest earth and rockfill embankment dam in the eastern U.S. The plant uses more than 70 million gallons of water a day. Water from the Ohio River is returned in a condition that is equal to or better than when it was withdrawn. Three 410-foot natural draft cooling towers reduce the temperature of approximately 310,000 gallons of water per minute by 27 degrees.

Requirements: Attendees are encouraged to bring their own hard harts. No open toe shoes. No photography of any kind is allowed including phones with cameras. Bags and back packs are subject to inspection.