Cape Cod Power Plant to become a rail customer.

I wish I could provide more details,but,I don't have them. I had an interesting conversation with a conductor on the Cape Central just this past week. Apparently, the power plant on the Cape which I believe is known as "Pilgrim" will in the near future be a freight customer of the Bay Colony which handles freight operations on the Cape. This will be to comply with some sort of environmental requirement. While the gentleman gave me the name of it, I cannot recall the name of the cleaning agent that cannot be transported by water but, is needed in too great a quantity to be transported by truck to the plant. It will all be coming in by rail. My guess is tank cars. He did tell that a "Facility" would have to be built to accommodate this operation. I wonder if they will use the existing spur,or, build a new one. Has anyone else heard about this?

The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, situated near Plymouth, does not have rail access. There is a coal burning plant on the Cape Cod canal near Sagamore. This is on Bay Colony's line and, as the locals told me, is environmentally challenged.

Perhaps you are thinking of the 1,200 MW Canal Generating Station owned by Mirant and located in Sandwich? It can burn oil for the 1,200 or for about 400 MW of the 1,200 MWs can use natural gas. It cannot burn coal.

The catalyst used for emissions reduction for high sulphur oil is ammonia and would be delivered by rail tankcar.

OK Guys. My bad on the name of the power plant. I probably had Pilgrim on the mind as it was in the paper for a violation about a supervisor sleeping on duty while I was on vacation on the Cape. It is indeed the plant that is on the Cape at the bay entrance to the canal I am referring to. This plant which can burn coal, currently, and has for quite some time, run on oil. In fact the day of my ride on the Cape Central, a tanker was there being unloaded which was noted by the conductor I spoke to who was highlighting points of interest to riders over a P.A. system on the train. It is encouraging to hear about more business for the railroad on the Cape which only strenghthens the permanance of rail presence out there. I also noted along the route 2 propane facilties which had rail spurs that were not active. One would think with rising tranportation costs they would re-think what would be obvious savings right in front of them.

Just to clarify on products and their uses: Ammonia is used in scrubbers for NOx abatement (NOx is the stuff that creates ozone). Some NOx scrubbers use urea (a common fertilizer) that ships in covered hoppers. Sulfur scrubbers reduce SOx emissions using (usually) limestone or lime, which moves in covered hoppers (SOx is the stuff that creates acid rain). By the way, when limestone reacts with the flue gases, it creates a waste commonly referred to as gypsum... the same material used in sheetrock. And there's so much of it, a lot of companies are building wallboard plants next to power plants as a way to recycle the waste into a useable material. The NOx scrubbing produces no byproducts, other than nitrogen (which goes up the stack) and water.

I worked at the Canal Plant for several years and, for many years, for the company that built both of the units at the plant, (Stone & Webster).

The boilers are by B&W and were built for oil firing. Oil units can burn gas for part load but cannot burn coal. The coal flame pattern, ash content, etc is too diffetent. These units cannot burn coal without MAJOR (expensive) modifications to the boilers and environmental systems.

chmoore wrote:I worked at the Canal Plant for several years and, for many years, for the company that built both of the units at the plant, (Stone & Webster).

The boilers are by B&W and were built for oil firing. Oil units can burn gas for part load but cannot burn coal. The coal flame pattern, ash content, etc is too diffetent. These units cannot burn coal without MAJOR (expensive) modifications to the boilers and environmental systems.

Quite so, and the probabilty of getting a permit for a new conventional coal plant in the Northeast is nil.