Factory To Provide Catalyst Systems To Clean TVA Smokestakes

Factory To Provide
Catalyst Systems To
Clean TVA Smokestakes

CLEVELAND (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 gases 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.