ADVANCED FLUE GAS CONDITIONING AS A RETROFIT UPGRADE TO ENHANCE PM COLLECTION FROM COAL-FIRED ELECTRIC UTILITY BOILERS

The U.S. Department of Energy and ADA Environmental Solutions are engaged in a project to develop commercial flue gas conditioning additives. The objective is to develop conditioning agents that can help improve particulate control performance of smaller or under-sized electrostatic precipitators on utility coal-fired boilers. The new chemicals will be used to control both the electrical resistivity and the adhesion or cohesivity of the fly ash. There is a need to provide cost-effective and safer alternatives to traditional flue gas conditioning with SO{sub 3} and ammonia. During this reporting quarter, installation of a flue gas conditioning system was completed at PacifiCorp Jim Bridger Power Plant. Performance testing was underway. Results will be detailed in the next quarterly and subsequent technical summary reports. Also in this quarter, discussions were initiated with a prospective long-term candidate plant. This plant fires a bituminous coal and has opacity performance issues related to fly ash re-entrainment. Ammonia conditioning has been proposed here, but there is interest in liquid additives as a safer alternative