Effect of Increase in Cycle of Concentration for a Coal Based Thermal Power Plant on Water Conservation

Thermal power stations are one of the most water consuming industries. Since water remains the scare resource, its optimum utilization is necessary for the sustainability of the environment. Many of the power plants across the world were shutdown owing to source of water for running the plant dried due to less rainfall in the specific regions. In this study effect of increase in cycle of concentration is discussed. Different strategies are proposed to increase the cycle of concentration for thermal power stations to conserve the water requirement. The results show that increase in COC has significant effect on the reduction in the water use. It is also found that thermal power plants can reduce of the use of chemicals in treatment of water. However, use of costly equipment like RO Plant, Crystallizers and evaporators in the water treatment could escalate the capital investment cost by 1 to 1.5 billion INR.