With the commissioning of these two scrubbers, TVA has now a total of 10 scrubbers operating at five of its 11 coal-fired power plants.
The two scrubbers installed at Kingston will control sulfur dioxide generated from all nine boilers at the fossil plant, which has the capacity to produce 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year.
Construction on the two scrubbers, which cost approximately $475m, began in 2006, the first of which was completed in December 2009, and the second this past April. TVA will conduct a series of tests over the next several weeks on the pollution control equipment.
The company claims that a scrubber uses a limestone and water mixture to remove sulfur dioxide emissions by routing flue gases produced from burning coal. If released into the atmosphere, sulfur dioxide gas forms sulphates, thus creating fine particles that reduce visibility and causing acid rain.
Leslie Nale, plant manager of Kingston fossil plant, said: “We now have state-of-the-art control equipment on all of our units at Kingston, allowing us to generate the electricity needed by our customers.
“This translates into cleaner air in the Great Smoky Mountains and across the region.”
