MHD repowering for environmental control and capacity addition

Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is one of number of advanced power generating technologies being investigated by many world laboratories. This technology, upon successful development, will result in a direct coal burning power generation system having significantly higher efficiency, lower environmental intrusion, and lower generation costs than existing conventional electrical generation plant. The authors address the question as to whether the most economical way to clean up the stack would be to repower the plant with an MHD topping cycle. This approach also provides additional capacity by the amount of net power generated by the MHD topping cycle. Since additional capacity is needed in Poland and the USA, this appears to be an attractive feature. In this paper, the authors have developed the conceptual design, calculate the performance, and estimate the capital costs for repowering a Polish power plant with MHD