NPPD to Install New Coal Crushers at 228-Megawatt Sheldon Power Station

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) (Columbus, Nebraska) is planning to replace two old coal crushers in order to improve efficiency and safety at its 228-megawatt (MW) Sheldon Power Station near Hallam in Lancaster County, Nebraska. The station has two 1960's-vintage Babcock & Wilcox coal cyclone-fired wet bottom boilers that utilize about 2,800 tons of coal per day. The coal from both crushers goes to a common storage area, from which one or both boilers receive coal. There are no new components readily available for the old crushers, and each one currently has to be taken down for maintenance about every 45 days, with a major overhaul once a year.

NPPD has selected Pennsylvania Crusher Corporation (Broomall, Pennsylvania) to provide the new crushers with spare cage assemblies, and has chosen Malloy Electrical Bearing Supply (Sioux Falls, South Dakota) to provide the alternating current induction motors to operate them. The cost of this equipment is over $800,000, not including installation: crushers, $443,733; cages, $109,580; and the motors, $280,000. The old crushers were made to be used with bituminous coal, which has higher sulfur content. NPPD switched to Powder River Basin (PRB) coal in the early 1990's to lower sulfur emissions. PRB coal is a sub-bituminous coal and needs a finer grind consistency for proper ignition and combustion.

The old crushers can crush up to 175 tons per hour each, and the new ones are supposed to crush 200 tons per hour each, for a net gain of about 50 tons per hour. Maintenance will also be easier, as the equipment, which must be rotated every 45 days, will be done automatically, without the need to shut down the equipment and have to physically rotate it.

NPPD plans to replace the crushers one at a time, so the old ones can be dismantled and the new ones can be built in the same place as the old ones. One crusher can provide the daily plant needs for coal, so the units will be able to continue operating during the dismantlement and installation of the crushers this fall.

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