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Archive for the Acid Rain Category
Alter NRG Corp. finalized purchase of Erco Site, in Lamont County, east of and adjacent to Bruderheim
September 17, 2008 by admin.
Alter NRG Corp. announces the finalization of the plant siting for the first Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power facility in Canada.
TSXV - NRG CALGARY, Sept. 15 /CNW/ - Alter NRG Corp. (”Alter NRG” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has closed the previously announced acquisition of a project site in Bruderheim, Alberta (approximately 60 kilometers northeast of Edmonton) for $3.1 million, including $0.6 million in costs related to settlement of existing transmission commitments. The Company plans to use the site to develop Canada’s first IGCC facility with the first phase to be operational as early as 2010. On commencement of operations, the facility is expected to be capable of producing approximately 120 megawatts (MW) of electric power using a blend of natural gas as well as synthesis gas (syngas) produced using Alter NRG’s proprietary plasma gasification technology. The facility will be designed for carbon capture and storage (CCS) with approximately 600,000 tonnes per year of captured CO2 to be injected into nearby geological formations or used at nearby oilfields in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects….(Full Story)
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Comments by folc.ca : It is obvious that lawyers had a heavy hand in wording the long list of exceptions and cautionary notes stated at the end of the Alter NRG news release, under the heading, Advisory Respecting Forward-Looking Statements. The list of exemptions shown there is very long. In combination with that list, the following key statements contained in the Advisory loom large and heavy:
The forward-looking information and statements included in this news release are not guarantees of future performance and should not be unduly relied upon….
The Company cautions that the foregoing list of assumptions, risks and uncertainties is not exhaustive. The forward-looking information and statements contained in this news release speak only as of the date of this news release, and the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required pursuant to applicable securities laws.
Translating the legalese into English for normal mortals and in the process condensing it into something that is more useful, what that means then is that, quite possibly, none of the information in the news release by Alter NRG is necessarily final or subsequently true after having been published.
The news release contains information that should worry people living close to the proposed Alter NRG power generating plant, some within less than half a mile, with the eastern boundary of Bruderheim being as close as half a mile to the plant.
The following identifies a few of the statements contained in the news release and also some of the concerns relating to them.
- On commencement of operations, the facility is expected to be capable of producing approximately 120 megawatts (MW) of electric power using a blend of natural gas as well as synthesis gas (syngas) produced using Alter NRG’s proprietary plasma gasification technology.
Comment by folc.ca: Natural gas is a natural resource that is the primary fuel for home heating in Alberta. Alberta’s natural gas is also a resource that is rapidly being depleted, as a result of which the price of natural gas is escalating. The production of electric energy from natural gas and its substitute, syngas, is wasteful and will increase the demand for natural gas and syngas. That will cause increases in prices for gas used for home heating.
- The facility will be designed for carbon capture and storage (CCS) with approximately 600,000 tonnes per year of captured CO2 to be injected into nearby geological formations or used at nearby oilfields in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects.
Comment by folc.ca: The news release states nothing about the fact that CO2 is not a pollutant. More importantly, the news release makes absolutely no mention of pollutants that the plant will produce and how those will be dealt with, so as to prevent their injection into the environment, for instance, nitrous oxides and sulphur dioxide, of which especially the latter has the potential of creating serious and very harmful degradation of the local and general environment.
Nevertheless, there are issues of great concern that directly relate to the scheme for CO2 capture, transport and disposal.
The process of CO2 capture and injection into nearby geological formations requires transportation of an average of 1,700 tonnes of CO2 each day. How will that be done and by what means? If the transporting is by trucks, that means that there will be an enormous increase in road traffic, in the order of an average of at least 280 trucks a day (assuming an average of six tonnes of CO2 carrying capacity per truck), about 12 trucks every hour (assuming that the trucks operate around the clock) and considerably more than that if the trucking operations cease during the night.
Furthermore, the logistics of the whole process seem daunting and are not likely to work without flaws or bottlenecks. If CO2 capture, transporting and injection into the ground should at any time and for any reason be below the required average of 1,700 tonnes per day, will the power plant be shut down, or will it make use of as yet unidentified buffer storage on site? That storage facility will have to be substantially large and be capable of containing CO2 under great pressure.
Nothing is perfect. The storage and transporting of large volumes of CO2 present dangers to people and property in the vicinity of the plant and transportation routes. Aside from the increased likelihood of vehicle accidents in Bruderheim and vicinity, what are any other dangers the scheme of CO2 capture, transporting and injection will pose to residents in the area?
- The project is expected to be completed in two phases in order to take advantage of near-term capacity needs in the Alberta power market.
Comment by folc.ca: Alter NRG cannot be faulted for wanting to take advantage of the increasing market demand for electric energy. However, the escalating shortage of electric energy is a result of the Alberta government’s failure to create effective policies for the construction of large-scale power plants for the generation of electric energy. That massive problem will not be solved by increasing reliance on Band-Aid solutions, such as energy production through wind-turbine farms (of primary benefit only to the main producer of wind turbines in North America: General Electric) and through natural-gas-fired power plants.
Electric energy production from natural gas or syngas will add to demand for natural gas and for syngas. That will drive up the price for home-heating fuel and for fertilizer (the price for fertilizer is presently at about $2,000 a tonne).
- NGCC facilities are the cleanest fossil fuel power generation technology available today.
Comment by folc.ca : That statement is true, but it is not all of the truth. Aside from increasing the demand for natural gas — with associated price increases, the demand for increased production of natural gas will also increase the production of sulphur. Especially new natural gas sources produce sour gas, meaning gas that must be stripped of its large content of hydrogen sulphide before it can be injected into the Alberta gas distribution system.
The inventory of Alberta’s waste sulphur is presently at about $11 million tonnes. Large-scale use of natural gas will escalate Alberta’s problems with issues arising from stockpiling waste sulphur.
Canada is one of only two nations in the world (the Russian Federation being the other one) that presently and unreservedly permit the stockpiling of waste sulphur. Large scale electric energy production from coal can without a doubt be made to be as clean as that from natural gas. The current technology for that is to store waste sulphur produced from coal-fired power plants in the form of relatively inert gypsum (much like the gypsum pile at the Agrium Fertilizer Plant south of Redwater).
- The regulatory process is underway, as regulatory permitting is critical for early implementation of the first phase. The Company expects timely issuance of the required permits.
Comment by folc.ca : Whatever it may mean that the “regulatory process is underway,” that process has not yet progressed to the point where any of the residents who are concerned parties in the vicinity of the proposed power plant have been formally notified of any hearings or other aspects of the required “regulatory process” and environmental reviews.
- The second phase of the project will use petroleum coke and oilfield waste, which are both available in the nearby area, to create syngas using the Alter NRG proprietary gasification system.
Comment by folc.ca : Neither that statement nor anything else in the Alter NRG news release mentions that petroleum coke and oilfield waste contain potentially very large portions of sulphur and other pollutants that need to be stripped from either those primary fuel sources or from the syngas produced from them or from the flue gases of the Alter NRG power generating plant, so as to meet environmental pollution parameters dictated by Alberta Environment.
What will Alter NRG do with the pollutants, such as waste sulphur, it would produce at its proposed power generating plant to be located just a few hundred meters east of Bruderheim?
- The Bruderheim facility will capture up to 90% of the CO(2) produced by the plasma gasifier (up to 1,700 tonnes per day) which is expected to be sold to oilfield producers in the nearby area for EOR.
Comment by folc.ca : What that means is that ten and more percent (how much more is left unspecified) of the CO2 produced will not be captured.
Still, the fact is that CO2 is not a pollutant, and that no one should worry about it, except people like Al Gore (who makes a good living from the brokering of carbon credits and from promoting the fears required to make that carbon credit brokering a viable enterprise).
However, we must worry about the pollutants that the Alter NRG news release does not mention at all. It is worrysome in the extreme that the Alter NRG news release does not mention any pollutants other than the ostensibly polluting but in reality environmentally-beneficial CO2.
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Without a doubt, benign and even environmentally-beneficial CO2 is a major component of the emissions of the power generating plant proposed by Alter NRG. Still, another potentially benign and major component of the proposed power plant’s effluents, water (not mentioned by Alter NRG), will in all likelihood have a very detrimental impact on the environment in the immediate vicinity of the proposed power plant.
Water is a major by-product of the combustion of hydrocarbons. The water vapour that would come out of the flue stacks of the proposed power plant would be invisible for varying distances from the flue stacks. However, the distance of that invisibility varies with the weather — humidity and temperature.
In extremely cold weather, the water vapour turns into a large cloud that, depending on local weather conditions, lingers in the local environment and adds to the often and increasingly severe fogs that have become more and more prevalent in and around Bruderheim.
Given that the fog to be produced by the proposed power plant will contain sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxides, the fog will be acidic. Alter NRG stated nothing about that. That is extremely worrying and needs to be addressed in the environmental review process for the plant, of which, so far, we have heard absolutely nothing.
SULFUR COMPOUNDS (SOx)
The primary reason sulfur compounds, or SOx, are classified as a pollutant is because they react with water vapor (in the flue gas and atmosphere) to form sulfuric acid mist. Airborne sulfuric acid has been found in fog, smog, acid rain, and snow. Sulfuric acid has also been found in lakes, rivers, and soil. The acid is extremely corrosive and harmful to the environment….
Historically, SOx pollution has been controlled by either dispersion or reduction. Dispersion involves the utilization of a tall stack, which enables the release of pollutants high above the ground and over any surrounding buildings, mountains, or hills, in order to limit ground level SOx emissions. Today, dispersion alone is not enough to meet more stringent SOx emission requirements; reduction methods must also be employed….
Flue gas desulfurization systems are classified as either non-regenerable or regenerable. Non-regenerable FGD systems, the most common type, result in a waste product that requires proper disposal. Regenerable FGD converts the waste by-product into a marketable product, such as sulfur or sulfuric acid. SOx emission reductions of 90-95% can be achieved through FGD. Fuel desulfurization and FGD are primarily used for reducing SOx emissions for large utility boilers. Generally the technology cannot be cost justified on industrial boilers.
Emissions Cleaver Brooks Package Boiler Systems 2002 08 17
Note: Given the escalating world sulphur glut, converting “the waste into a marketable product” requires solutions that have not yet been found to be practical or viable. Still, it is wrong or only partially correct to state that “Generally the technology cannot be cost justified on industrial boilers.”
The controlling factor is not cost justification (that would make it a discretionary option) but environmental regulation and is therefore mandatory, not an option. –Walter
–Walter Schneider
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Related story: Alter NRG powerplant east of Bruderheim put on ice (Oct, 22, 2008)
Posted in Explosions & Fires, Community & Industry, Alternative Energy Sources, Acid Rain, Nitrogen-Oxides, Hydrogen-Sulphide, Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | 1 Comment »
Alta. oilsands cause acid rain
February 18, 2008 by admin.
Report issued by environmental group warns of ‘most destructive project on Earth’
Matthew Kruchak and James Wood, The StarPhoenix
Published: Saturday, February 16, 2008
Acid rain caused by Alberta oilsands production is pouring down on Saskatchewan and if governments don’t take note, any oilsands development in this province will contribute to the “most destructive project on Earth,” the Environmental Defence organization warns.
A report released Friday by the group says 70 per cent of the sulphur entering Alberta’s air ends up in Saskatchewan. Acid rain is produced by the interaction between water, sulphur and nitrogen oxides….(Full Story)
Posted in Community & Industry, Acid Rain, Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »
Seawater-scrubbing of diesel exhausts on cruise ship
October 29, 2007 by admin.
folc.ca
Holland America Lines test seawater-scrubbing of diesel exhausts on cruise ship
Massive sulphate disposal in seawater, is it safe, or will history repeat itself?
Walter Schneider
According to announcements by Holland America Cruise Lines and by Kristallon (the maker of the scrubber) earlier this year and later, one of the best solutions ever devised to reduce and curb cruise-ship-engine emissions, and thereby the massive sulphur-dioxide (SO2) pollution produced by cruise ships, was about to be tested and is undergoing testing right now, with promising results.
The seawater scrubber on the cruise ship Zaandam (Inland route Vancouver to Alaska) will use 450 tonnes of seawater an hour to help convert SO2 to sulphuric acid (H2SO4) and to sulphate (SO42-). The altered seawater from the conversion of the SO2 by the seawater scrubber will be discharged - diluted at a ratio of 1:10 - into the ocean. The conversion of the remaining sulphuric acid contained in the discharge water will then be completed in the ocean, to convert the remaining sulphuric acid to sulphate.
In essence, such a conversion process will do what nature does anyway, but it will take a shortcut and eliminate atmospheric pollution and the impact of acid rain caused by cruise-ship emissions. When SO2 is discharged into the air, it is transformed into sulphur-trioxide (SO3) and then, upon contact with water in the air, changed to sulphuric acid and into sulphate. That produces acid rain.
A diesel-powered ship equipped with a seawater scrubber will locally discharge concentrated “acid rain” right into the ocean and, where a cruise ship cannot connect to an on-shore source of electric energy (there are none on the Vancouver-Alaska route), right into the water of the harbour where it is berthed.
Various studies that were commissioned to examine the issues involved concentrated on the “acid rain” issue. They mention sulphate-production and -dumping only in passing, if at all. Those studies that mention sulphate consider it to be harmless, but is it?
Sulphate is a source of oxygen for anaerobic bacteria. Anaerobic bacteria metabolize sulphate and produce, amongst other things, hydrogen-sulphide (evil-smelling in small concentrations and scentless but harmful and even extremely deadly in moderate concentrations). Aside from the fact that the dumping of sulphate causes anaerobic bacteria to thrive in seawater at the bottoms of bodies of water that are starved of oxygen (common in coast waters), the anaerobic bacteria cause a concern that none of the seawater-scrubber studies I examined mention at all.
Anaerobic bacteria that metabolize sulphate convert the all-pervasive mercury in water (its presence there being largely a result of atmospheric distribution of pollution by coal-fired power plants) to a form (methyl-mercury) that is bio-available but not bio-degradable. The danger of methyl-mercury in the biomass is that it becomes concentrated as it moves up through the food chain — by a factor of about 10 every time it passes from one level to the next. At times and in some localities methyl-mercury causes fish (who are one step removed from the top of the food chain) that are contaminated with excessive levels of methyl-mercury to become unsafe to eat.
Methyl-mercury poisoning in humans who regularly ingest fish or shellfish was first discovered in 1956 in Japan, where it produced the infamous Minamata disease and its devastating results. Minamata disease also manifested itself many years later in Canada, in humans that lived, and regularly ate fish, in areas downstream from pulp mills.
Are seawater scrubbers on cruise ships safe for humans? Who knows? One thing is certain. Although the cause of Minamata disease was known for many years, prior to 1970 it was not considered in calculating its impact on humans when pulp mills using mercury-polluted bleach and discharging mercury-polluted water into streams were constructed in Canada.
Minamata disease in Ontario, Canada, was discovered in 1970. The human misery and costs caused by Minamata disease in Ontario were enormous.
There are many settlements along the Inland Route to Alaska that subsist on fish. There are others that sell fish to the whole world. Will seawater scrubbers on cruise ships keep all consumers of fish from that area safe? Who knows? One would think that is worth taking a look at.
However, as of now it does not appear that anyone involved in studying seawater-scrubbing of diesel exhausts of any ship is looking beyond the goal of preventing most or all SO2 produced by ships from entering the atmosphere. The impact that the injection of a massive volume of sulphate will have on the local ecology in coastal waters, in relation to giving anaerobic bacteria a boost that will enable an escalation of the rate of conversion of precipitated mercury to methyl-mercury, appears not to be an issue that is being examined in connection with sulphate production by seawater scrubbers. Nevertheless, the relationship of anaerobic bacteria thriving on sulphate and causing an escalation of the production of methyl-mercury in the process is a fact. For example:
Coastal Environmental Quality Initiative, University of California
Contribution of Iron-Reducing Bacteria of Mercury Methylation in Marine Sediments, by Emily J. Fleming and D C. Nelson; Paper 040, Dec. 8, 2006 (212 kB PDF file)Quote: [methyl-mercury] enters food chains where it bioaccumulates to concentrations that can cause impaired neurological function in a variety of higher organisms (fish, birds, humans). This toxic conversion has, in the scientific literature, been quite dogmatically attributed to activities of sulfate-reducing bacteria….
More reports and study reports can be accessed through a google-search (about 364 entries on the search-return list)
There may not be any cause for concern with the environmental impact of seawater scrubbers, but it is possible that it exists. If that is the case, and if seawater scrubbers still are permitted to be used, then many people will become severely and incurably ill, and ultimately the taxpayers will be left holding the bag.
Posted in Pollution: Health Issues, Bunker Fuel, Acid Rain, Heavy-Metal Poisoning & Pollution, Hydrogen-Sulphide, Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »
U.S. Imposes Highest Acid Rain Fine Ever
September 20, 2007 by admin.
yosemite.epa.gov
(Washington, D.C. – Sept. 20, 2007) In a landmark settlement filed today, East Kentucky Power Cooperative, a coal-fired electric utility, has agreed to pay an $11.4 million penalty to resolve violations of the Clean Air Act’s acid rain program, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today….
“This settlement shows that when you violate the law, [the] EPA will be there to make you pay.”….
The government estimated that the utility’s Dale Generating Station emitted over 15,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and 4,000 tons of nitrogen oxide without a permit from approximately 2000-2005. In addition, the government alleged the utility exceeded the federal annual emission rate for nitrogen oxides….
Coal-fired plants release sulfur dioxides and nitrogen oxides, which are a primary cause of acid rain that harms trees and lakes and impairs visibility. Nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxides cause severe respiratory problems, contribute to childhood asthma, and contribute to smog and haze. Emissions from power plants can drift significant distances downwind and degrade air quality in nearby areas…. (Full Story)
Posted in Pollution: Health Issues, Fines & Penalties, Acid Rain, Nitrogen-Oxides, Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »
Increasingly-visible Air Pollution by Industrial Heartland
May 11, 2007 by admin.
folc.ca
A piece of cowboy logic goes: “Always drink upstream from the herd.”
Unfortunately, short of moving away or going to work elsewhere, for anyone living or working in or near the Industrial Heartland of Alberta there is no way to get upstream from the soiled environment and the dirty air that not all that many years ago were clean.
Another piece of cowboy logic goes: “If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing is to stop digging.”
It’s about time that we stop digging. Visible air pollution isn’t just something to gaze at.
- It is something you smell when you go outside, especially if there is no or little wind, and you wish you could go without breathing.
- It causes the paint on your car and on your house to fade and to become defective.
- It causes steel to rust and galvanized steel to lose its zinc-coating.
- It causes electric fences to lose their effectiveness. If you are a farmer and wonder why your electric fences don’t work as well as they did when you got them set up, you will get an explanation if you check the electrical conductivity of the zinc-oxide-coating your fence wires acquired in just a handful of years. You will find that your fence wires are now in effect insulated wires.
- It causes respiratory problems in children and the elderly.
The list goes on, and the problems will get worse until things get to be as bad as they are now in China, and people here too die each year in numbers that can no longer be ignored.
We should stop digging now while we still can, so that we don’t have to dig graves when it’s much too early, while wishing we didn’t have to dig.
Posted in Community & Industry, Pollution: Health Issues, Acid Rain, Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »
China - Disaster in the making?
May 9, 2007 by admin.
Daily Mirror, e-edition
Of all the rapidly developing countries, China is the most fascinating. The country is vast, its history and culture right up to Maoist times exotic, it’s present rate of development dizzying, and it’s poised to be the next superpower. Goods made in China, cheaper than Japanese products, have found a place in most households across Asia and Africa.
Behind this happy picture, however, there is a less evident and highly disturbing tale of environmental disaster. Chinese leaders are finally showing signs that they know what’s happening. In the 11th five-year plan, the economic policy blueprint approved in 2005, they announced a change of emphasis that in some ways admitted knowledge of the degree of environmental degradation behind China’s great leap forward in industry during the past two decades….(Full Story — off-site)
Posted in Acid Rain, Pollution: Health Issues, Community & Industry, Nitrogen-Oxides, Heavy-Metal Poisoning & Pollution, Hydrogen-Sulphide, Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »
Death From Above: Acid Rain in Buenos Aires
May 8, 2007 by admin.
GNN (Guerilla News Network)
Weapons of Mass Distraction
Death From Above: Acid Rain in Buenos Aires
Well guess what? Not only we’re back to the turbulent years of the 1970s, we also have reports of major levels of a very dangerous type of pollution, also from those crappy years.
Just last week many residents of the city of Buenos Aires (BA) (the capital of Argentina and biggest city of the country) reported massive cases of acid rain, a [type] of pollution known for being highly [corrosive - the term used in the original article is “abrasive”] to materials, extremely dangerous to living creatures and, yep, a big source of CANCER.
Now, why there’s acid rain in BA? after all there’s a source for everything, specially pollution…
The thing is, one of the main sources of acid rain is sulphur. When sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are emitted into the atmosphere, these undergo a chemical transformation and are absorbed by water droplets in clouds. The droplets then fall to earth as rain, snow, mist, dry dust, hail, or sleet.
The result? A rain of death….(Full Story — off-site)
Posted in Pollution: Health Issues, Acid Rain, Nitrogen-Oxides, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »
Toxic truth of secretive Siberian city
April 5, 2007 by admin.
BBC News
…To blame are the clusters of huge chimneys at three smelting plants which surround Norilsk.
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, the chimneys pump out a toxic cocktail of pollutants which the company responsible openly admits is mostly sulphur dioxide.
Once in the atmosphere this gas turns into acid rain….
According to figures provided by the company, the total amount of sulphur dioxide produced by all three plants is almost two million tons a year….(Full Story)
Posted in Acid Rain, Heavy-Metal Poisoning & Pollution, Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »
The Effect of Air Pollution on the Chinese Population
February 26, 2007 by admin.
By Aditya Shirali ‘08, Cornell University…Chinese health officials have noticed a troubling increase in respiratory and cardiovascular diseases due to pollution….Sulfur dioxide, a noxious compound produced in coal combustion, contributes to approximately 400,000 premature deaths a year in China through its damaging effects on the environment and health of citizens (Bradsher & Barboza, World Business)….Sulfur dioxide results in the formation of acid rain, which now falls on approximately 30% of China’s cultivated land area (EIA 2006). Consumption of crops and water affected by acid rain can have drastic effects on human health, such as arsenic poisoning and suppression of the immune system. However, a source of worry regarding acid rain is the destruction of crop yields, significantly inhibiting the growth of the agricultural sector….China has seen a soaring rise in respiratory diseases, which are currently the leading cause of death in China….In an attempt to reduce sulfur dioxide emission, the Chinese government established protocols to require smokestacks of all new coal-fired plants to be fitted with devices that remove up to 95 percent of the sulfur (Bradsher & Barboza, World Business).* (Full Story)
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* Note by folc.ca: That ought to have a negative impact on Canada’s (read Alberta’s) prospects to increase waste sulphur exports to China. The world market for waste sulphur is already glutted.
Posted in Acid Rain, Pollution: Health Issues, Heavy-Metal Poisoning & Pollution, Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur Logistics, World Sulphur Glut, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »
TVA adding emissions controls to Rogersville plant
February 15, 2007 by admin.
Wate, Knoxville, Tennesse, February 14, 2007
ROGERSVILLE (WATE) — The Tennessee Valley Authority says a plan for adding new equipment at its John Sevier Fossil Plant will reduce some emissions by as much as 95 percent.
TVA plans to install equipment to further reduce sulfur dioxide emissions and nitrogen oxide emissions at the 712-megawatt plant in Rogersville.
Sulfur dioxide contributes to the formation of acid rain and haze problems. Nitrogen oxide contributes to ground-level ozone pollution. (Full Story)
Posted in Acid Rain, Emission Incidents & Issues, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »