The goal of this project is to commercialize methods for the control of mercury in coal-fired electric utility systems equipped with wet flue gas desulfurization (wet FGD). The two specific objectives of this project are 1) ninety percent (90%) total mercury removal and 2) costs below 1/4 to 1/2 of today's commercially available activated carbon mercury removal technologies.

Babcock and Wilcox and McDermott Technology, Inc's (B&W/MTI's) will demonstrate their wet scrubbing mercury removal technology (which uses very small amounts of a liquid reagent to achieve increased mercury removal) at two locations burning high-sulfur Ohio bituminous coal: 1) Michigan South Central Power Agency's (MSCPA) 55 MWe Endicott Station located in Litchfield, Michigan and 2) Cinergy's 1300 MWe Zimmer Station located near Cincinnati, Ohio.

Benefits of B&W/MTI's enhanced wet FGD mercury removal technology include:

1. Being Cost Effective: Based on preliminary economic analyses completed to date, the B&W/MTI technology has the potential to be significantly more cost-effective than activated carbon for the same level of removal.

2. Being Capable of Providing Co-Pollutant Control: Multiple pollutant analysis was recently documented in a report prepared by the U.S. EPA entitled, "Analysis of Emissions Reduction Options for the Electric Power Industry". The study looked at options to lower air emissions of SO2 (for fine particulate control), mercury, and CO2. The basic conclusion to the analysis was that an integrated, multi-pollutant approach to the control of these emissions could offer significant cost savings relative to a piecemeal approach. This conclusion applies directly to the use of wet FGD systems.

3. Being Easily Retrofitable to Existing Units: The equipment necessary to add a liquid reagent to existing wet FGD units is very minimal. This allows for a practical system with a very small system footprint and ease of use for the utility. This should lead to a rapid acceptance of the technology by the coal-fired power utility industry in both existing and new markets.

4. Near-Term Commercialization in Line with Pending EPA Regulation Decisions: It is anticipated that cost-effective, commercial mercury control technologies will need to be available by the year 2004 and B&W/MTI hopes to prove this concept no later than 2003.

5. No Impact on By-Product Disposal or Usage: Effective mercury sequestration in the wet scrubbing solid by-product is expected with this technology. Very small amounts of reagent are used in the process, therefore virtually no impact on the by-product is seen based on the reagent alone. The additional mercury sequestered because of the increased mercury capture should have very little to no impact on the disposal or use of the by-product based on the results of pilot scale tests. Tests performed by B&W/MTI to date indicate the form of mercury appears to be stable and re-release to the environment is not expected given the types of disposal practices or by-product uses for spent material from wet FGD systems.