Lynemouth Power Station - Operations - Water Use

Water Use

For creating the steam to turn steam turbines and generate electricity, and for cooling the steam coming away from the turbines, water is needed, and is thus beneficial to have near any thermal power station. The cooling water that is used in the Lynemouth power station is taken from a body of water located close to the plant, the North Sea. The water is transferred from the sea to the plant by a series of shafts and tunnels. There are three condensers (one per each generating set) in the interior of the power station, which are used to cool the heated water before it is reused in the steam cycle. The cooling water is then transferred back to the North Sea.

Water used in the steam cycle is taken from the local mains water, supplied by Northumbrian Water. Up to 300,000 tons of mains water per year is used in the station, however it has to be cleaned of impurities before use. This is done at an on site water treatment plant that uses a process of ion exchange to remove impurities such as silica and control PH levels so as to avoid boiler tube corrosion. This treated water is used to make superheated steam in the coal-fired boilers, that will turn the turbines before being recovered in the condenser and reused.

Operating close to the power station is a fishing bait company, Seabait. Seabait uses some of the excess hot water that the plant generates to grow worms four times as fast as in the wild. The worms are used for several purposes, primarily for providing worms as bait while fishing. However, the worms are also frozen, packaged and exported to seafood farms. This is seen as environmentally beneficial as it reduces the need for bait digging in natural habitats.