TVA.
by jrd on 10/12/24.
In the late nineteen-fifties, "Coal Was King" in the state of Kentucky and in Ohio County and Muhlenberg County in particular. In 1965 Muhlenberg County became the nation's leading coal producing county, a title they held for several years. This coal existed in two major coals fields in the state of Kentucky; "The West Kentucky Coal Field" and "The East Kentucky Coal Field". A small lignite coal field exists in the Jackson Purchase area of far Western Kentucky. The "West Kentucky Coal Field" lies within the Illinois Coal Basin. This area includes a small area in Illinois, North of the Ohio River, and extends south in about twenty counties in Kentucky with Ohio County just about in the center of this once rich coal field. Of this coal basin, there are about 10 differnt seams of coal that are mined ranging from #9 Coal to the area of #23 Coal with the higher number of coal being closer to the top of the ground. In Ray Stevens' song, "Santa Claus is watching you", there is a line that goes "He's Everywhere! He's Everywhere!" In the fifties, in a small part of Western Kentucky, this line could be changed to "Coal Is Everywhere! Coal Is Everywhere!" General Buell, of "Airdrie Hill" fame, founded an oil company that searched and searched for oil in Muhlenberg County and drill hole after drill hole came up empty of oil, but coal seam after coal seam was found. Thousands of acres of coal seams were discovered in the area surrounding the small town of Paradise, Kentucky.
Also in the late nineteen-fifties, the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA had not been established and environmental air pollution was not a concern. TVA was operating coal fired generating plants in three states with nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, carbon dioxides, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter being admitted from the smokestacks in all TVA Fossil Plants. The coal was pulverized and blown into the furnace producing combustion with heat and noxious flue gasses being generated. The heat was transferred to the water and steam in the boiler drum and boiler tubing and the noxious flue gases were admitted to the atmosphere from the smokestacks. The TVA furnaces were essentially an open area with a boiler drum on top and surrounded by boiler tubing where the steam was being generated.
Not to be outdone, in the late nineteen-fifties TVA and Peabody Coal Company formulated plans for a new type of coal burning power plant with Peabody agreeing to a long term contract to supply the coal. After many meetings and gathering of ideas, a hand-shake type of partnership was formed between the two big conglomerates. The new idea was for TVA to locate a coal burning power plant smack in the middle of a coal field and Peabody Coal Company agreeing to and signing a twenty year contract to supply coal to the new plant. This new plant was to be named Paradise Fossil Power Plant and the new mine would be named Sinclair Mine. This was big and boilers, turbines, generators, coal strippers, coal trucks and other machinery and equipment needed to be constructed. Some of this equipment was going to be of gigantic sizes, never to have been built before and other companies would have to design and produce this new equipment.
The Paradise Fossil plant was to be located in Western Kentucky on the west, or Muhlenberg County side, of the Green River just up river from the small community of Paradise. Initial plans called for two units to be built with two more identical units in future plans. Units 1 and 2 went on line in 1963 with the generation capacity of 704 megawatts each. To make a comparison, most other TVA Fossil Plants were in the 150 megawatt range. At the time, Units 1 and 2 were the largest operating units in the world. Later, instead of constructing two more identical units, new plans called for a larger unit, to be called Unit 3 and it had a nameplate rating of 1,150 MW, with a summer net generation capacity of 971 MW. Unit 3 went on line in 1970. By now, larger plants were being built. For over fifty years, Units 1 and 2 would successfully generate some 700 MW of continuous electricity each, not counting downtime for repairs and such, before being retired and shut down in 2017. For about fifty years, Paradise Unit 3 would do the same, but with an output of almost a a 1,000 MW and would retire and be shut down in February of 2020. That is a lot of power production.
During the summer months and other times when the water flow in Green River was low, power generation from Paradise had to be decreased. Instead of the water from the river supplying the plant's needs and then flowing down river, it tended to circulate. Steam power plants, especially those of the size of the three units at Paradise, use a tremendous amount of water and coal. In the summertime the Green River just did not have sufficient flow, and cooling capacity, to supply the power plant's needs. Instead of a normal flow of the "intake" water, from the river, entering the plant and then being discharged back into the river and to continue downstream, it would circulate back up river to reenter the intake structure. This caused a heating of the river. Cooling towers were needed and were built before Unit 3 could be placed on line. Three natural-draft cooling towers were built. Paradise was the only TVA coal-fired power plant to have cooling towers. These towers are typically seen at nuclear power plants. As mentioned, large coal-fired power plant use a tremendous amount of water as well as coal. Paradise Fossil Power Plant certainly had an appetite for coal, consuming some 22,000 tons of coal on a daily basis. As the initial contract with Peabody was nearing the end Peabody and other smaller contractors begin to supply the plant with coal. In 1985, a barge-unloading facility was added and now coal could be delivered by barge as well as train and truck.
As previously mentioned, coal seams in the Illinois Basin are categorized or identified by numbers with the lower number seams being found deeper in the ground. There are about 10 different seams of coal in this Illinois Basin ranging from #9 coal to about #23 coal. The lower number seams are not only deeper, but are of a lower sulfur content and a higher BTU rating. Of course more sulfur in the coal means more pollution and less BTU means less energy released during combustion. The #9 and #11 coal is good coal with a high BTU rating and lower sulfur content and it is normally used in the Fossil Power Plants in this area. This coal is pulverized to about a powder consistency and just blown in to the boilers of coal fired plants. Complete combustion takes place in the furnace, generating heat and the ash falls to the bottom of the furnace while the flue gases exit out the stack. The coal seams in this area are 100 or so feet deep and range from #13 to #23 coal. This coal is shallow enough that it can be strip-mined where the dirt, rocks, and such can be removed exposing the coal seams. To efficiently burn this lower quality coal, a different type furnace must be built and TVA contracted the Babcock and Wilcox Company to design and build the first 700 MW Coal-fired Cyclone Furnace. These "Cyclone Units" were some 10 feet in diameter and were located on the back sides of the furnace tubing. Paradise Units 1 and 2 were to have 7 cyclone units on the front of the boiler and 7 units on the back. Complete combustion occurred within the "cyclones". The coal supplied to the "Cyclones" was not pulverized, thus much larger size coal than the powder type coal of a "Pulverized Coal" type furnace was being burned and pulverizers were not required. And to finalize the situation, #23 coal could be mixed with #17 coal and burned efficiently at Paradise. Ah, but the pollution that was produced was another matter and eventually the downfall of this big electricity producing plant called "Paradise Fossil Plant".
In order to supply some 22,000 tons of coal daily to the Paradise Fossil Plant, Peabody Coal Company, Sinclair Mine, had to think big and to go big and to go big they did. Large coal hauling trucks were ordered as well as large about everything else. In particular was a massive shovel that Peabody contracted the Bucyrus Erie Company to build. When built, this shovel, a BE 3850B, was the largest self powered land vehicle ever built. This big shovel, built to remove the overburden from the coal seams, was to be named "Big Hog". "Big Hog" weighed as much as a Navy cruiser, stood 20 stories high, and could pick up almost 200 tons of dirt and rock, deliver it 450 foot away and be ready for the next cut in 50 seconds. It could have moved all of the dirt in the Panama Canal in three years - "a job that required thousands of men using lesser machines nearly 20 years to complete." And that, mind you, with only one man at the controls. The shovel capacity was a 115 cubic yards bucket, with a 210' dipper and weighed 18 million pounds. "Big Hog" operated on 7,200 volts producing a total of 12,000 horsepower (hp). This monster of a machine was 90 feet higher than statue of liberty, and 45 higher than Niagara Falls. The entire machine was supported on four sets of dual crawlers which were automatically leveled and equalized through four hydraulic jacks which weigh 2,500 tons and used 4,500 gallons of hydraulic fluid. "Big Hog" went into operation in 1962 and uncovered the coal seams until 1984. A good story tells of the fate of Big Hog as being buried in a pit that it dug and covered with dirt by the 1260 dragline. Actually, all of the serviceable parts of "Big Hog" were removed and sent to another mine with the unusable parts being buried and covered with dirt by that 1260 dragline. To see more of "Big Hog" and the Sinclair Mine click on the following link.
Sinclair Mine also used two large drills on top of the highwall that could drill 15" diameter holes 150' deep through solid rock in fifteen minutes. Bucyrus Eire (BE) produced two of the massive rotary blast hole drills to drill holes for explosive charges that would blast the rock and dirt loose for the shovel to remove. Click on the above link for more information on these drills.
Time does not stand still and after years of digging of the coal, for the production of electricity, things change and then are gone. EPA was established and cleaner air was mandated. Old coal-fired power plants are massive producers of "dirty" air and the continuing and increasing restrictions of allowable pollution, by the EPA, sealed the fate of Paradise Units 1 and 2 and later caused Unit 3 to shut down. At this date, Paradise Fossil Plant continues to be dismantled with the intent of cleaning up the old site. Sinclair Mine removed most of the coal in the area and with no more coal to be uncovered and mined, the big shovels, the big draglines, the big coal trucks and other big equipment was without any work to be done and were either buried or sent elsewhere. "That's all folks."
10/12/24.
Thanks for viewing and reading.
by.....
jerry
;<)
