South Dakota Power Plant to Become 99.99 Percent Clean

South Dakota Power Plant to Become 99.99 Percent
Clean

Thanks to an experimental pollution control device developed by
the Energy and Environmental Research Center at the University of
North Dakota, a South Dakota coal-burning power plant could become
the nation’s cleanest, reports EarthVision Environmental
News.

‘The device is expected to remove 99.99 percent of the particulate
matter released during coal combustion,’ according to the report,
‘easing the haze and respiratory problems caused by the tiny ash
particles.’

Once the ‘Advanced Hybrid Filter’ (as the new device is being
called) is installed for testing this fall, the Big Stone Power
Plant is expected to emit an unprecedented 0.007 pounds of fly ash
per million British Thermal Unit (BTU) from its smokestacks. That’s
more than four times less than the current emissions standard for
the region, which is 0.03 pounds per million BTU.

The filter works by combining the two most common pollution control
devices currently in use: electrostatic precipitators, which
electronically charge two metal plates to which the ash then
adheres, and baghouses, Gore-Tex filter bags that collect the ash.
The project is the first of eight selected last year by the U.S.
Department of Energy’s Power Plant Improvement Initiative.
Following the two-year testing period, the hybrid filter will be
taken on as the Big Stone plant’s permanent pollution control
system.
–Chuck Terhark
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