Youngstown Thermal Begins Work for $75 Million Test Project
March 4, 2016
By: WFMJ
March 4, 2016
Youngstown Thermal announced on Thursday that construction on a $74 million energy project will begin before the end of the year in downtown Youngstown.
Carl Avers, Chief Executive Officer of Youngstown Thermal, said they're in the process of testing soil conditions to find the best spot to start construction.
Representative Marcy Kaptur (OH-9) announced in October that the Department of Energy has awarded $74,995,687 to Energy Industries of Ohio to further develop an advanced prototype steam turbine and components.
In order to more efficiently reduce carbon dioxide emissions and generate electricity from coal-fired plants, the power industry needs turbines that operate in a much higher temperature range exceeding 700 degrees Celsius.
Youngstown Thermal says the two major components of the project include an advanced energy super heater and a turbine made of special alloys, which would be the first in the world.
They say that preliminary engineering was completed in 2014 and final engineering started on Sept. 1.
The 10,000 horsepower turbine will be housed alongside Youngstown Thermal's existing boiler house.
The project is a demonstration project for a new fleet of higher efficiency electricity producing plants, according to a news release.
The design improves fuel efficiency from about 33 percent to 48 or 50 percent improvement over current power producing plants. Youngstown Thermal said this type of increase would be equivalent to improving the gas mileage efficiency of a 30 mpg automobile to 45 mpg.
“This is a demonstration project,” said Avers. “Our site was selected because of our company's unique ability and history to think outside of the box and work to do demonstration [and] research projects alongside of an operating business.”
Youngstown Thermal says once the demonstration phase of this project is completed, it will change the way base load electricity will be produced in power plants worldwide.
A visitor's center will be part of the project so people can see the facility in operation.