Montana Electric To Build Cleanest Coal Fired Plant

Billings, MT - Southwestern Montana Electric Generation & Transmission Cooperative, Inc. (SME) took a major step closer to building one of the world's cleanest coal fired electric plants as they presented technical data to two companies that are competing to build the plant's boiler.

Tim Gregori, General Manager of SME, and his engineering staff presented technical data to Alstom and Foster Wheeler, two leading manufactures of "clean coal technology" boilers for the power industry, at a meeting at the Civic Center in Great Falls.

"If built as projected, this will be one of the cleanest plants in the world," said Richard Opper, Director of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.

"They plan to use state-of-the-art boiler technology and activated carbon injection. Cleaner plants will come on line in the future as the technology advances," Opper said. "But right now, what SME is planning is just about as good as it gets."

The plant, which will be built near Great Falls and is known as the Highwood Generating Station, will provide an affordable, reliable and stable source of electricity to the member of the five rural co-ops that make up SME and the City of Great Falls.

The Highwood Generating Station will provide many economic benefits to the community. But right now SME is focused on the health and safety of people in the Great Falls area and "down stream" communities that could be influenced by the plant's emissions.

SME is committed to establishing a goal of capturing either 90 percent of the mercury present in the "raw coal," or allowing only 1.5 pounds of mercury per trillion BTUs to be present in the stack emission of the proposed facility. Through the use of state-of-the-art technology, the company believes it can meet this stringent emissions requirement. However, SME is requesting that a "floor" of capturing either 80 percent or 2.0 pound per trillion BTU's be put in place to allow for reasonable operating flexibility during a limited testing period to verify mercury capture capability in a full-scale unit. In contrast, existing coal burning power plants are capturing between 20 and 50 percent of the mercury present in the "raw coal" and allow the remaining mercury to be released into the environment.

Prior to engaging in discussions on potential mercury emissions capture rates, SME shipped 80 tons of Montana coal and 20 tons of Montana limestone to a test facility that is capable of modeling the performance characteristics of the proposed facility.

"During the test burn we achieved an 88 percent mercury capture rate with the basic unit without mercury specific control equipment," said Gregori. "With the addition of the best available mercury emissions control technology, we were able to achieve mercury removal levels of approximately 93 percent on a limited basis. Given the chance, we think we can demonstrate that a sustained capture rate of 90 is a realistic goal."

SOURCE: Southern Montana Electric