Penn State University Steam Plants Tour

[rockwood]

This is kinda long winded but I found it interesting.



The coal handling equipment (about 12 minutes in) is really cool.

At the time the video was made, they were going to convert from coal to gas in the near future.

[scalabro]

I found it interesting as well. Thank you for posting it!

[Sunny Boy]

Thanks for posting that rockwood. Yes, very interesting.

Paul

[Snotzalot]

What type of coal are they burning?

[lzaharis]

Its most likely metallurgical grade bituminous coal (burning 70,000 tons a year)

Cornell University burned 86,000 tons of Metallurgical Bituminous annually before they
switched to natural gas.

Can you imagine just how much less coal they would burn if they were
crushing anthracite and making rice coal?

I am not sure if they were using Riley stokers but their main steam plant went on
line in 1929 like the one at Cornell University which has a Riley and another brand unit.

Cornell has converted to natural gas with a twin steam turbine combined
cycle system that makes steam and electricity both but apparently they are
not reclaiming the steam to capture water vapor for reuse.

Like the old Milliken Station on Cayuga Lake the new steam turbines vent to the atmosphere.
I can just imagine how much turbine oil vapor is coating the east hill campus.

I am sure they are switching to gas for the same reason Cornell did-bypass the need
to convert to a fluidised bed combustion system to scrub the exhaust stack gasses to
satisfy the EPA regulations for reduction in heavy metals discharge into the atmosphere.

If they have ripped out all the coal handling and ash handling equipment It is something
they are going to regret.

[Scottaw]

My father in law used to haul the ash for that plant. He quit long before I knew him, don't know much about it, but I believe it's all natural gas now, they were putting in a pipeline a year or so ago.

[tsb]

Can you imagine the BTU load when it's -5 and 40,000 students decide to take shower in the morning .
They had a nice tour video on the PCN network a few years ago.

[rockwood]

They're definitely using soft coal.

They really should keep the coal fired equipment for a back-up heat source since they already have that infrastructure in place. Having said that, with all the new regulations they really don't have a choice because it would cost too much for the equipment to meet the new standards to continue using coal.

[DePippo79]

Neat video. Love those old brick power plants. I think there's one original Boston and Maine Railroad power plant left, crumbling away. Might have to go do some investigating. I remember when I was going to New York alot, there was a nice brick coal powered power plant on route 5s around Rotterdam. Don't know if it's still there or not. Another missed photo opportunity.
Matt

[g10mm]

Thank you for posting this I never new this about Penn State. I love this old equipment that dates back 1920 still working well . And the simplistic of it . Here in PA we have a lot of coal. It really makes me mad the EPA comes in and tell them to get rid of this
In 1996 when it got so cold . During the day it was 3 degrees and at night -5 degrees at night I remember the news telling PECO gas customers to turn down there thermostats to save gas because there were running out of natural gas . The gas lines couldn't keep up with the demand. I can't image the gas load of Penn state gas would not using any coal at all . I wonder what will happen if a cold snap like 1996 happens again .

[davidmcbeth3]

I was bummed .... hoping for discussion of the sex scandal .. like that this was the location of some of the heinous crimes that occurred...

[coalnewbie]

Thanks for sharing.

[NJJoe]

Thanks for sharing

[g10mm]

Does anybody know if Penn state is still using coal to heat there building