Cleveland factory to provide TVA with air-cleaning technology

Cleveland factory to provide TVA with air-cleaning technology
By DUNCAN MANSFIELD
Associated Press Writer

CLEVELAND, Tenn. (AP) — Promising to help clear the region's air, Cormetech Inc. dedicated a new factory Thursday that will supply the Tennessee Valley Authority and other utilities with the latest technology in reducing smog-forming emissions.
"What we are celebrating here today … goes much further than bricks and mortar," said Robert Ecklin, chairman of the Durham, N.C.-based joint venture of Corning Inc. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
"We should look beyond the products that are produced here to see the bigger picture," he said.
"And that picture is one in which the power needed to keep our communities and our businesses humming is generated in a manner that provides a cleaner environment for all of us."
TVA has awarded a $68 million contract to Cormetech, the largest single order in the young industry's history, to supply 13 "selective catalytic reduction" systems for 20 of its 59 coal-fired generators by 2004.
It's part of a $750 million to $800 million voluntary effort by TVA to significantly reduce nitrogen oxide emissions in the face of tightening standards by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"These initiatives will generate major improvements in the quality of air and the quality of the environment throughout the Tennessee Valley," TVA Director Glen McCullough said.
Calling the Cormetech system "the most advanced technology in nitrogen oxide removal available anywhere in the world," McCullough said TVA plant installations should go a long way in "helping valley states meet their ozone reduction requirements."
Cormetech's system injects ammonia into hot flue gasses as they pass through large honeycomb-like ceramic blocks, the catalysts. The process claims to cut NOx emissions by 90 percent, leaving a byproduct of water vapor and harmless nitrogen.
The first Cormetech system for TVA is undergoing testing now at the Paradise plant near Louisville, Ky. A second system, and the first produced by the 100-employee Cleveland factory, is now being built for Paradise.
TVA intends to install other catalytic systems at its Allen plant near Memphis, Cumberland near Nashville, Widows Creek that affects Huntsville, Ala., Chattanooga and Atlanta; and the Bull Run and Kingston plants that affect Knoxville and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Ground-level ozone, formed when nitrogen oxide from power plants and cars mixes with other pollutants in sunlight, causes respiratory problems at high levels. The Smokies had a record 54 days of high ozone levels last year.
Jerry Golden, TVA fossil power production technology manager, said the catalytic systems developed by Cormetech should reduce TVA's NOx emissions by 80,000 tons a year.
Golden said at one time that was expected to satisfy EPA tougher standards now under court challenge by the industry. But it is unclear now.
Already, he said, TVA's "voluntary initiative is turning into a mandatory thing … and it is likely that what we have committed now may not be enough."
So TVA may be placing more orders with Cormetech.
Meantime, Cormetech officials said they already are considering doubling the Cleveland plant by 2001 to meet contracts from TVA and other power companies, including Southern Co. and Virginia Power.
TVA, the country's largest public power producer, provides electricity to nearly 8 million people served by 159 distributors in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.