水力发电学报
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JOURNAL OF HYDROELECTRIC ENGINEERING ›› 2016, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (7): 75-83.doi: 10.11660/slfdxb.20160708

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Golden mussel biofouling and its prevention in pumped-storage power plants

  

  • Online:2016-07-25 Published:2016-07-25

Abstract: Pumped-storage power plants (PSPs) aim to solve the conflict between power supply and demand at the peak and trough of power consuming, ensuring grid safety, economic growth, and stable production. Invasion and biofouling of golden mussel (Limnoperna fortunei) in PSPs, however, is attracting wide public attention because in recent years the biofouling has caused severe problems in the operation of PSPs. The specific operation mode of PSPs is commonly taken as the major cause for such biofouling in water intakes and tunnels. A PSP releases water stored in its upper reservoir to the lower one when it generates power during peak power-consuming hours, and pumps water back to its upper reservoir during low demand hours. During water releasing and pumping, golden mussel veligers are stirred up from the reservoir bed and transported into the intakes, tunnels, and the other structures reachable by the flow; then they are settled down on the walls of all the structures they have touched, causing biofouling, structure corrosion, and even pipe clog. Particularly, the small tubes of the PSP cooling water system are under a high risk of being clogged, often causing a shutdown accident. This study presents an overview on the latest advances in preventive measures against golden mussel biofouling in PSPs based on previous studies, overseas experiences, and our own experiences. For large-scale water-intake pipes of PSPs, the risk of clogging is low and therefore the basic strategy should focus on pipe wall resistance to the corrosion. Certain environment-friendly, economically-desirable coating materials, e.g. SK-Polyurea and SK-Epoxy YEC, which have been shown very effective in terms of biofouling resistance and pipe-wall durability, are recommended according to our experimental study. For small-scale PSP cooling water systems, we propose a control device of the veliger density in water flow that integrates the measures of attachment-attracting, settling, and veliger killing and thus effectively reduces biofouling risk.

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