By Stan Stelter
Bismarck, ND – Technology developed at a University of North Dakota research center could help to significantly reduce pollutants from coal-fired power plants around the country.
The advanced emission-control system has been tested at the Big Stone Power Plant in South Dakota. Officials for Otter Tail Power Company, which co-owns and operates the plant, say they will be installing a full system by next fall.
The technology uses filters and electrostatic devices to remove virtually all of the fine particulates in the flue gases coming from power plant stacks.
The system was invented by Stan Miller -- senior research manager at U-N-D's energy and environmental research center. He says the technology has been more effective than they planned. "Our original goal was to achieve 99.99 percent of even the very finest particles, the type of particles that can be inhaled and reach the deep regions of your lungs, and so that was the goal. All of our tests show that we have greatly exceeded that number. In fact, some of our tests show that the air is as clean as the ambient air around the plant."
Otter Tail spokesperson Cris Kling says the system has great potential for the energy industry. "For one thing, there are possible stricter regulations of fine particle emissions here in the United States that could open up even larger markets for this technology. And then this country also has a need to expand the baseload generating capacity and that's going to increase the market for clean, coal-fired power systems. Well they would be ideal applicatons for this."
Funding for the $13.4-million project will come from the Department of Energy, the plant's co-owner's and the company that manufactures filter bags for the system.