UNIVERSITY HOPES CONSULTANT CAN GET FLAWS OUT OF ITS NEW BOILER

In an effort to get its pollution-reducing, coal-burning boiler running more efficiently, Southeast Missouri State University plans to enlist the aid of the boiler's de~signer.

The designer, Alex Wormser, who operates a company in Massachusetts, will be hired by the university as a consultant at a cost of about $6,000 or $7,000.

Bill Moon, the university's physical plant director, said Wormser is expected to be here in August. "I am looking at him being here six or seven days."

Moon said Wormser expects to have the $4.7 million boiler operating smoothly within that week.

But even if that occurs, Southeast is facing another problem with the boiler finding another quarry to supply the 3,000 tons of limestone the university uses every six months.

The boiler uses a special type of limestone to reduce the amount of sulfur dioxide emitted from the burning of high-sulfur coal.

Moon said Thursday that the university has been notified that its supplier is shutting down the quarry.

The three-year-old boiler is one of three coal-fired boilers in the university's power plant. The other two are aging, standard boilers. The power plant also has an old, diesel-fueled generator.

The university uses about 9,000 tons of coal annually at a cost of about $250,000.

Moon said Thursday that the university plans to hire a consultant to determine the condition of the aging boilers and how long the institution can continue to operate them.

The $45,000 study, which could begin within 60 days, will also look at whether the university should get out of the electrical generation business entirely and use the boilers solely to generate steam to power campus heating and cooling systems.

Currently, the steam is also used to provide electricity in peak-demand periods. But most of the university's electrical power is purchased from Union Electric.

"We generate some, but that equipment is so old we are not inclined to run it unless absolutely essential," said Moon.

Peak demand on campus is about 6,000 kilowatts an hour, and the university with short notice can provide about 2,200 kilowatts an hour of electricity, he explained.

Southeast generates electricity only 30 days a year at most, Moon estimated.

"We have got to decide whether to generate electricity or not." He said there's a question of how such a decision would affect electrical rates charged by UE.

"The idea is, as long as we can generate power, it keeps our rates a little bit lower," Moon pointed out.

The physical plant director said the university operates the fluidized, bubbling-bed boiler only about 30 to 40 percent of the time. It is generally not used during the summer.

"It is being used (during the year). The problem is, I don't think it is being used enough, and I don't think it is running as efficiently as it should," said Moon.

"We have had problems with it creating large clinkers (a lumpy residue) inside the fire boxes."

The special boiler, which gene~rates about 50,000 pounds of steam an hour, is one of only about four boilers of this size and type nationwide, he pointed out.

"You have a bed of limestone that is kept at a very high temperature and the coal is crushed and injected into the limestone, and immediately burns off.

"It burns efficiently when it is on line and working properly," said Moon. "But these boilers are very touchy. There is a very small corridor that they have to operate in to be 100 percent efficient. Every now and then, it jumps out of that."

It's a particular problem, he said, when the university needs to generate only a small amount of steam.

He said the boiler system is computer-driven. "There are a lot of things that could go wrong."

Southeast has experienced a number of problems with the high-tech boiler over the years. Installation of the unit was delayed when the project's contractor experienced financial problems.

It finally went on line in February 1989, but was operated only haltingly for the remainder of the year as adjustments had to be made to meet emission requirements, including finding the right type of low-moisture limestone.

Moon said he believes the boiler should generate 22.35 million BTUs per ton of coal burned. "But I don't know that we are getting that, among other things, because there is no good way to measure it."

Currently, Southeast operates the smaller of its standard boilers most of the time. That boiler generates about 50,000 pounds of steam an hour.

The other standard, coal-fired boiler generates about 125,000 pounds of steam an hour. But it's seldom used, said Moon.

The boiler, he said, "is just too big to run when you're not generating electricity. Our steam loads never get high enough to require that big boiler."

Moon said that if the fluidized bed boiler can be operated more efficiently, the university could operate it all of the time instead of the standard boiler.

Moon said it's important to make use of the fluidized bed boiler. "I think that we've got an investment that we have to protect. We have to get what we have paid for. So, I think right now, it's an assumption on my part that the fluidized bed boiler will be a part of our overall operation."

It's particularly important, said Moon, to make use of such technology as government regulations make it increasingly difficult to meet emission requirements for burning of high-sulfur coal.