Lephalale Municipality is a predominantly rural Municipality with 38 villages, two townships (Marapong and Onverwacht) and one town, Lephalale. Lephalale, formerly known as Ellisras, is a town situated in the “heart of the Bushveld” in Limpopo province. The town is growing rapidly and more industries are becoming concentrated within this small town. The construction of Medupi power station which is underway and other projects such as the expansion of Grootegeluk mine (coal 3 and 4 projects), and road developments in the area; have led to concern about the ambient air quality of the area. Other possible future projects are the Coal to Liquid project by Sasol and the Coal Bed Methane project by Anglo American Thermal Coal. The purpose of this study is to determine the ambient air quality impact of the Matimba power station in the Lephalale area. The AERMOD model and ambient air quality data obtained from Eskom’s Grootstryd and Marapong monitoring stations were used to assess the ambient air quality of Lephalale. Sulphur dioxide and Nitrogen oxides were investigated. Both the model’s results and the ambient air quality monitoring data indicated that the power station contributes to high -ground level concentrations of Sulphur dioxide. AERMOD simulated the nitrogen oxides results as nitrogen dioxide. From the study it is concluded that the power station is not the only source of nitrogen oxides. Nitrogen oxides concentrations were associated with low-level sources. The relationship between the criteria pollutants in this study was assessed. The study found that there is no relationship between sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. This finding was used to support the idea that sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are from different sources. It was also established that seasonality has an influence on the ground level concentrations of pollutants in the area.

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One or the characteristics of all anthracite coal, with its low volatile content, is its ability to burn completely in a small volume. Another characteristic and disadvantage of local, semi-anthracite coal is its high ash content. It is the authors' belief that local, semi-anthracite coal can be burned most effectively for domestic heating if the furnace design allows for these characteristics. With these facts in mind, it was decided that the Anthratube had excellent possibilities as a domestic unit for burning local coal. The Anthratube, by its compactness, takes full advantage of the first characteristic; with its ash-removing grate, it overcomes to a great extent the disadvantage of the second characteristic. The purpose of this thesis was, then, to determine whether or not various sizes of local, semi-anthracite coal from the Merrimac seam could be successfully burned in the Anthratube. The coal used for this investigation was obtained from the Great Valley Anthracite Corporation located at McCoy, Virginia. 1. Pea size, local coal can be burned very successfully in the Anthratube. Overall boiler efficiencies of the unit with this size coal are high over a wide range of loads. Of the sizes of coal burned, pea size is most suitable for the Anthratube. 2. Buckwheat size, local coal canoe burned in the Anthratube with good results. The overall boiler efficiencies obtained with this size of coal are good, although not as high as those obtained with the pea coal. 3. The performance of the Anthratube with rice size, local coal is inferior to that achieved with pea and buckwheat sizes. The output of the unit is seriously limited when using this size. 4. Culm size, local coal cannot be burned in the Anthratube. / M.S.

Master of Science / Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering / Stacy L. Hutchinson / Coal-fired generation accounts for 45% of the United States electricity and generates harmful emissions, such as sulfur dioxide. With the implementation of Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) systems, sulfur dioxide is removed as an air pollutant and becomes a water pollutant. Basic physical/chemical wastewater treatment can be used to treat FGD wastewater, but increased regulations of effluent water quality have created a need for better, more economical wastewater treatment systems, such as constructed wetlands. At Jeffrey Energy Center, north of St. Mary’s, KS, a pilot-scale constructed wetland treatment system (CWTS) was implemented to treat FGD wastewater before releasing the effluent into the Kansas River. The objectives of this study were to 1.) determine if a portable water quality meter could be used to assess water quality and track pollutant concentrations, 2.) develop a water balance of the CTWS, 3.) generate a water use coefficient for the CWTS, and 4.) create a mass balance on the pollutants of concern. Water quality measurements were taken with a HORIBA U-50 Series Multi Water Quality Checker and compared to analytical water tests provided by Continental Analytic Services, Inc. (CAS) (Salina, KS). The water balance was created by comparing inflows and outflows of data determined through flow meters and a Vantage Pro2™ weather station. Information from the on-site weather station was also used to compute the system water use coefficient. Water sampling was conducted from date to date at 10 locations within the CWTS. In general, there was little to no relationship between the HORIBA water quality measurements and the analytical water tests. Therefore, it was recommended that JEC continue to send water samples on a regular basis to an analytical testing laboratory to assess the CWTS function and track pollutants of concern. Because the water balance was conducted during system initiation, there was a great deal of fluctuation due to problems with the pumping system, issues with the upstream FGD treatment system, extreme weather events, and immature vegetation. This fluctuation resulted in the system having a non-steady state operation, which weakened the ability to calculate a system water use coefficient. However, during periods of strong system function, the water use coefficient was similar to previous studies with maximum water use being approximately equal to the reference evapotranspiration. The results of the mass balance indicated high removals mercury, selenium, and fluoride, but low removals of boron, manganese, chloride, and sulfate were exported from the CWTS.

Student Number : 9202134A - PhD thesis - School of Civil and Environmental Engineering - Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment / South Africa’s energy economy is dominated by coal, which produces relatively high emissions of greenhouse and noxious gases during combustion. This causes environmental problems that may lead to health risks that are cause for concern. In this thesis, various propositions are tested about whether in the Cape Metropolitan Area natural gas is a lower cost energy source than coal for generating base load power within a specified range of capacity factors under different scenarios. The problem being investigated is the uncertainty about the quantified effect that revenue from monetised carbon dioxide credits and inclusion of damage costs would have on the breakeven selling price of electricity, if natural gas were substituted for coal for generating base load power in the above Area. The research procedure entailed conceptualising and developing technical details of four power generation scenarios and reviewing various tools for cost-benefit analysis. Next, a Te- Con Techno-Economic Simulator model and screening curves were selected from a suite of potential tools. The power generation cost profiles for coal and natural gas were determined, followed by sensitivity analysis. The model was populated and used to compare the lifecycle economic performance of coal and natural gas technologies. Natural gas emerged as a lower cost energy source than coal for generating base load power within a specified range of capacity factors under all the scenarios. This thesis recommends the following: the introduction of tax holidays and favourable capital equipment depreciation regimes to stimulate natural gas exploration; the use of natural gas as an energy source to promote small-scale enterprises in communities contiguous to gas transmission pipelines; in addition, electricity prices should reflect damage costs in order to internalise externalities associated with power generation. The contribution to knowledge is the innovative way of financing the gas-fired power generation project by using the monetised carbon dioxide credits under the novel Clean Development Mechanism to redeem a bank and a shareholders’ loan. This could result in reducing the loan payment by 4.3 years, saving 38 % in interest payments and allow scarce finance available for project funding to be extended to other projects to the advantage of national economic development.

The Matimba and soon to be completed Medupi power stations located in close proximity to the town of Lephalale are a cause for environmental concern due to the known effects that coal combustion has on air, soil and water quality. The Medupi power station is currently being constructed, while the Matimba power station may have already negatively altered the water quality of the rivers especially those downwind of the power stations. The Lephalala (perennial river, upwind), the Mokolo (perennial river, upwind) and Matlabas (seasonal river, downwind) Rivers were selected due to the locations relative to the power stations. The concentrations and flux of cations and sulphate ions within the rivers in the Waterberg District Municipality were investigated for any seasonal or annual patterns using monthly data from a single sampling station along each river. Data for the concentrations of sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, ammonium and sulphate were analysed in conjunction with river discharge, rainfall and ambient temperature data available for each hydrological year from 1999 to 2010. The data were converted to seasonal and annual values in order to determine the influence of the quality and quantity of coal combusted as well as climatic variables (rainfall, temperature and discharge) on ion fluxes measured. Sodium was the dominant cation in all rivers, reaching a maximum concentration of 0.0015 mol.ℓ-1 (in 2007), 0.0007 mol.ℓ-1 (in 2007) and 0.0006 mol.ℓ-1 (in 2001) in the Lephalala, Mokolo and Matlabas Rivers, respectively. Other cation concentrations were four times lower in the Lephalala and Mokolo Rivers, while they were eight times lower in the Matlabas Rivers. Sulphate concentrations were approximately nine, five and 15 times lower than the cation concentrations measured within the Lephalala, Mokolo and Matlabas Rivers, respectively. The mean summed cation flux was highest in the Lephalala River (0.0015 ± 0.0010 Eq.ℓ-1), which was approximately 1.7 and 2.1 times higher than summed cation fluxes measured in the Mokolo (0.0009 ± 0.0002 Eq.ℓ-1) and Matlabas (0.0007 ± 0.0006 Eq.ℓ-1) Rivers. Cation fluxes were highest during the rainfall season (summer and spring) in the river closest to the Matimba power station (Mokolo Rivers) while summed cation flux in the Lephalala and Mokolo Rivers (located further away from the power station) showed no specific seasonality. It was, however, noted that the cation fluxes during spring and winter were elevated for both rivers, possibly indicating

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Science in Engineering, Johannesburg September 1998 / Combustion modelling of utility furnace chambers provides a cost efficient means to extrapolate the combustion behaviour of pulverised fuel (pf) as determined from drop tube furnace (DTF) experiments to full scale plant by making use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The combustion model will be used to assimilate essential information for the evaluation and prediction of the effect of • changing coal feedstocks • proposed operational changes • boiler modifications. TRI comrnlssloned a DTF in 1989 which has to date been primarily used for the comparative characterisation of coals in terms of combustion behaviour. An analysis of the DTF results allows the determination of certain combustion parameters used to define a mathematical model describing the rate at which the combustion reaction takes place. This model has been incorporated into a reactor model which can simulate the processes occurring in the furnace region of a boiler, thereby allowing the extrapolation of the DTF determined combustion assessment to the full scale. This provides information about combustion conditions in the boiler which in turn are used in the evaluation of the furnace performance. Extensive furnace testwork of one of Eskom's wall fired plant (Hendrina Unit 9) during 1996, intended to validate the model for the ar plications outlined above, included the measurement {If : • gas temperatures • O2, C02, CO, NOx and S02 concentrations • residence time distributions • combustible matter in combustion residues extracted from the furnace • furnace heat fluxes. The coal used during the tests was sampled and subjected to a series of chemical and other lab-scale analyses to determine the following: • physical properties • composition • devolatilisation properties " combustion properties The same furnace was modelled using the University of Stuttgart's AIOLOS combustion code, the results of Which are compared with the measured data. A DTF derived combustion assessment of a coal sampled from the same site but from a different part of the beneficiation plant, which was found to burn differently, was subsequently used in a further simulation to assess the sensitivity of the model to char combustion rate data. The results of these predictions are compared to the predictions of the validation simulation. It was found that the model produces results that compare well with the measured data. Furthermore. the model was found to be sufficiently sensitive to reactivity parameters of the coal. The model has thereby demonstrated that it can be used in the envisaged application of extrapolating DTF reactivity assessments to full scale plant. In using the model, it has become apparent that the evaluations of furnace modifications and assessments of boiler operation lie well within the capabilities of the model. / MT2017