The power industry in the U.S. is faced with meeting new regulations to reduce the emissions of mercury compounds from coal-fired plants. These regulations are directed at the existing fleet of nearly 1,100 boilers. These plants are relatively old with an average age of over 40 years. Although most of these units are capable of operating for many additional years, there is a desire to minimize large capital expenditures because of the reduced (and unknown) remaining life of the plant to amortize the project. Injecting a sorbent such as powdered activated carbon into the flue gas represents one of the simplest and most mature approaches to controlling mercury emissions from coal-fired boilers. The overall objective of this test program described in this quarterly report is to evaluate the capabilities of activated carbon injection at four plants with configurations that together represent 78% of the existing coal-fired generation plants. This technology was successfully evaluated in NETL's Phase I tests at scales up to 150 MW, on plants burning subbituminous and bituminous coals and with ESPs and fabric filters. The tests also identified issues that still need to be addressed, such as evaluating performance on other configurations, optimizing sorbent usage (costs), and gathering longer term operating data to address concerns about the impact of activated carbon on plant equipment and operations. The four sites identified for testing are Sunflower Electric's Holcomb Station, AmerenUE's Meramec Station, AEP's Conesville Station, and Ontario Power Generation's Nanticoke Station. This is the first quarterly report for this project. This report includes an overview of the plans for the project.
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