Case Study: Hamon Research- Cottrell to co-fund DOE mercury reduction demonstration program
An advanced, Compact Hybrid Particulate Collector (COHPAC) system provided by Hamon Research-Cottrell of Somerville, NJ, has been selected by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for a full-scale pulse jet fabric filter (baghouse) demonstration test to evaluate mercury reduction in coal-fired power stations.
This field test joins three other designated full scale electrostatic precipitator (ESP) tests as part of a combined, $6.7 million contract awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE/NETL) to ADA-Environmental Solutions (ADA-ES), a subsidiary of Earth Sciences Inc., Littleton, CO.
This will be the nation's first full-scale program to test advanced mercury control technologies. The technologies will be used by power generating companies to comply with potential future EPA regulations for mercury emissions from the nation's coal-fired power plants.
Hamon Research-Cottrell, in cooperation with ADA-ES and Alabama Power, a subsidiary of Southern Co., will be installing this equipment on boiler #3 at their E.C. Gaston Steam Plant located in Wilsonville, AL. A total of two boilers at their E.C. Gaston facility are already successfully operating with Hamon Research-Cottrell-supplied COHPAC technology, which is currently being utilized for particulate control.
The system to be used by the Gaston plant incorporates a transportable, dry sorbent injection system developed for this series of projects. The Hamon Research-Cottrell COHPAC technology utilizes a high air-to-cloth ratio low pressure/high volume (LPHV) pulse jet collector (baghouse) located between an existing ESP and the stack. Chemical sorbents - in this case, activated carbon - are to be injected into the flue gas after the ESP section. The carbon adsorbs the mercury and is collected on the filter cake in the baghouse downstream of the energized ESP, resulting in substantial emissions reduction.
The Hamon Research-Cottrell COHPAC process incorporates licensed, patented technology originally developed by the U. S. power industry under sponsorship of EPRI. This technology was especially developed for retrofitted multi-pollutant control, which includes Hg, SO2, HCI and particulate, depending on the specific sorbents employed.
Hamon Research-Cottrell has successfully provided the COHPAC technology on four coal-fired utility boilers to date with capacities up to 600 MW, as well as two boilers as part of a MACT compliance project for the SEMASS Resource Recovery Facility. The SEMASS facility is a waste-to-energy plant in Rochester, MA, operated by American Ref-Fuel Co. of Houston, TX.
Under the DOE/NETL cooperative agreement, ADA-ES is working in partnership with PG&E National Energy Group; Wisconsin Electric, a subsidiary of Wisconsin Energy Corp.; Alabama Power Co., EPRI and Hamon Research-Cottrell. DOE will fund 70 percent or $4.5 million of project costs, with participating companies co-funding the remaining 30 percent or $2.3 million.
Hamon Research-Cottrell is part of the Hamon Group, which specializes in the design, engineering, fabrication, and construction of cooling systems, chimneys, heat exchangers, heat recovery, and pollution control systems.
Source: Hamon Research-Cottrell