In May 2006, the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy sponsored a two-session Environmental Controls Conference (ECC 2006) in Pittsburgh, Pa. The event was cochaired by Tom Sarkus, director of NETL's Advanced Energy Initiatives Division, and Ron Cutright, director of NETL's Major Projects Division.
The first ECC 2006 session focused on selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and selective noncatalytic reduction (SNCR) control of various nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. SCR and SNCR—the primary technologies currently available commercially for achieving significant reductions of NOx in flue gas—rely on reacting flue gas with a reagent (usually ammonia or urea) to produce environmentally benign nitrogen and water.
Conferences on SCR/SNCR have been organized and conducted by NETL nearly every year since 1997. The second ECC 2006 session addressed the related issue of reducing stack emissions and flue gas concentrations of sulfur trioxide (SO3). It was the second NETL meeting on that subject; the first was held in 1998.
SCR/SNCR working
Carl Bauer, NETL director, gave the keynote address of the SCR/SNCR session. He began by reminding the audience how much America relies on coal-fired power. The U.S.—which has 27% of the world's proven coal reserves (an estimated 496 billion short tons, enough to last several hundred years)—currently gets about half of its electricity from coal. Because coal is forecasted as the cornerstone of America's energy future, in partnership with industry, the DOE is developing advanced technology to provide cost-effective solutions to environmental concerns.
Based on past performance, there's ample reason to believe that the technical community can deliver these solutions. SCR/SNCR technologies (among others) have proven capable of enabling any coal plant—new or existing—to operate as cleanly as a natural gas–fired plant, with respect to NOx.
Since passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970, emissions have declined for virtually every pollutant monitored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In particular, sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions have decreased 35% and emissions of fine particulate matter (PM10) have fallen 87% over the period, even as electricity production has risen 177% (Figure 1). The DOE has contributed toward this success by funding demonstrations of advanced SO2 scrubbers, a variety of NOx control technologies, air toxics and mercury (Hg) characterization studies, and clean-coal generation technologies. Building on this applied research, SCR systems will continue to be deployed domestically and worldwide.
2. CAIR builds on that progress. Significant advances in environmental protection by coal-fired power plants justify continued federal and state support for timely increases in coal-fired capacity. By 2020, the Clean Air Interstate Rule should have reduced nationwide emissions of SO2 from power plants below 5 million tons, and emissions of NOx well below that. Source: U.S. EPA
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