Testing Nature's Filtering Power
Wed. September 24, 2008; Posted: 02:17 PM
Sep 24, 2008 St. Clair News

Sep. 24--Alabama Power has recently begun a pilot program in conjunction with Duke Power, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to use nature to help filter some of the hazardous byproducts associated with burning coal at power plants.

If the program proves successful, Alabama Power can use a wetlands treatment system to filter out selenium and other chemicals and potentially save millions of dollars by not having to install chemical treatment plants onsite at coal burning power plants.

Alabama Power produces 70.5 percent of its power using coal. Around 18 percent of its electricity is produced using nuclear energy. Gas and oil account for just under 10 percent of power produced by the company and two percent comes from hydroelectric sources.

The Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Act states that industries must get rid of airborne pollutants produced so not to damage the surrounding environment.

But as the pollutants in the air are removed, there still remains the problem of what to do with runoff that may seep into the ground and water nearby.

"Wherever these pollutants ultimately end up is an important thing to consider," said Dr. Bill Garrett, who initiated the wetlands treatment system for Alabama Power in the late 1990's. "We may clean up the air; but then you will have a water problem."

That's where Dr. Garrett and his team come into play. Dr. Garrett said that Alabama Power is currently conducting the wetlands treatment studies at its Gorgas Coal Plant on the Warrior River to see how effectively and efficiently the water can be cleaned up, so as to have as little environmental impact as possible and also to have an efficient energy producing system for customers.

"The wetlands project is a real cost effective way of doing that without having to build an expensive chemical treatment plant onsite," Dr. Garrett said. A chemical treatment plant could run upwards of several millions of dollars at each coal plant.

Dr. Garrett explained what Alabama Power and similar power producing companies deal with in regards to environmental regulations.

"When you look at a coal fired plant today, it is covered up with environmental equipment," he said. "It's nothing like it used to be in the past."

Southern Company, which Alabama Power is a subsidiary, is in the process of spending $2billion on limestone "scrubbers," which are the main devices that take out pollutants such as sulfur dioxide from coal that has been burned to produce electricity.

Western PRB coal and Bituminous coal, which is the coal used widely by Alabama Power, each have different pollutants that are released after burning them to produce the heat required to turn turbines that produce power.

Dr. Garrett explained the process of getting the limestone scrubber, which is housed in a gigantic building attached to a duct system that captures the fumes produced when burning coal, to work to clean the air. There are three different power-generating units that combine gases to the scrubber at the Gorgas site.

"A scrubber is like a limestone milkshake shower, and it produces gypsum," he said. "Gypsum is the same product you'll find in sheetrock and is applied to some agricultural fields. So, it's a renewable resource, but there's an awful lot of it going to be made [by all of the electric utility industry]."

The wetlands system was originally used for removing toxic metals and acidity from coal runoff from the 11-acre coal pile at the Gorgas Plant. "When a coal pile has a lot of pyrite in it, and becomes wet, it then increases the acidity and amount of pollutants in the runoff water," Dr. Garrett said. "We don't want that to run off into the river, so we built the wetlands to treat that. This was the first treatment system of its kind and it worked well for, essentially, 10 years. Now we see an opportunity to treat the other pollutants that we're getting out from the scrubber."

Dr. Garrett and his team use the existing wetlands facility at the plant with some research modifications to conduct the experiments to see how effectively pollutant are removed from the scrubber waste water.

Part of the wetland is used to treat the acid runoff while another part is used to see how well the scrubber waste will behave as it flows through other parts of the wetland.

Though the system works well for removing most of the waste, the wetland system is now being tested to see how much selenium can be removed. Selenium is not harmful to humans and is even taken by some people as a dietary supplement. But it can harm the reproductive organs of fish and that is something Alabama Power, which is involved in many environmental causes, is definitely trying to avoid.

"We know that there may be restrictions on that at some of our facilities, so this is a research project to see if this type of technology can reduce the selenium along with other pollutants," Dr. Garrett said. "If fish bioaccumulate that in their bodies, they can't reproduce properly."

The wetlands project at the Gorgas plant is now using a portion of the two-acre plot that allows for a small amount of scrubber runoff to run through the system while being analyzed.

Right now, the project has reduced the selenium by 70 percent. "We're hoping to have complete removal," Dr. Garrett said.

He said that other types of wetland cells work in similar ways. "When you have a wetland cell, you are trying to let the biology of the substrate, or the mud, work so that the water perks down through and lock up the pollutants and leave them in the wetland and let the clean water flow through," he said.

Eventually the mud would be taken out and put in a landfill, since the chemicals left behind would not be toxic. "We would renew [the wetland mud] before it got to a concentration that would be toxic," Dr. Garrett said. "It's locked up in a solid phase, it wouldn't be hazardous to human health or to the ecosystem."

The wetlands treatment system used at the Gorgas site has its roots in the treatment of acid mine drainage (also called AMD). Coalmines often have water that seeps into the ground water and reduce the pH of the water table when that drainage is reintroduced into the local water table. Dr. Garrett said that sometimes the acid mine drainage can be so acidic that "you could preserve life in it, sort of like vinegar."

Not all coal produces acid mine drainage, since limestone in the soil often removes the harmful chemicals. But if acid mine drainage does occur, a filtration system must be put into effect in order to remove potentially toxic remnants.

Dr. Garrett talked about the importance of scientists keeping a balance between burning coal to produce power and maintaining a healthy environment. "A lot of us are going to spend a lot of our career trying to make coal a clean burning technology," he said. "My job is to find out what's the most cost effective way to do it well in order to keep electric rates low."

To see more of the St. Clair News Aegis, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.stclairnewsaegis.net. Copyright (c) 2008, St. Clair News-Aegis, Pell City, Ala. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Yup. We have a huge issue here just down the road from my community. Constellation Energy has been dumping fly ash into the gravel pit for years. Wonder how many people in the older community who have wells been drinking contaminated well water. We are in a new community so we have city water but the fact that it is only three miles down the road does not make me feel any better.

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95 R129
04 Infiniti G35.5 BS
10 X204

Why are they burning flies in the first place? Are they house flies, horse flies, bottle flies, or ***** flies? Does PETA know about this cruel abuse of flies? This outrageous! Somthing MUST be done immediately.

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

Ask someone that works in a power plant, not only do they burn flies, they burn bottoms too =)

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2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

When I was little, I did a lot of camping, hunting, and fishing with my family. My father would take myself and my two older brothers out frequently.

Quite often we would go to northern Minnesota or Canada. As you may imagine this is bear country.

My father told me the following advice if we were to spot bear activity.

The first thing you need is a bunch of ashes from the campfire.
Then you dig a very large and deep hole.
Next place all of the ashes into the large hole.
Open up a can of peas. Line the edge of the hole with peas.
Then you wait.....
And wait....
And wait....
Then finally when the bear comes to take a pea......you kick him in ash-hole.

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2009 ML320 Bluetec
1985 300CD
1981 300TD

Past Mercedes
1979 300TD
1982 300TD
2000 E320 4Matic Wagon
1998 E430
1984 300SD
1980 300SD

That reminds me of when I used to work in an iron foundry in Arkansas. I had red dots down my chest from the snaps on my shirt getting so hot they burned me. Ahhhh . . . those were the days. We didn't waste money on stuff like safety equipment. We don neeeed no steeenkin' safety equipment!

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

Bot - wasn't a wetlands-type project built somewhere near Texas or Florida to help with retention of rain water for drinking water purposes? They had razzed a large area of land for development but built a wetlands project which not only filtered the water, but helped collect it to use as fresh drinking water? I seem to recall hearing about this...it was a cool idea.

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Chris
2007 E550 4Matic - 61,000 Km - Iridium Silver, black leather, Sport package, Premium 2 package
2007 GL450 4Matic - 62,000 Km - Obsidian Black Metallic, black leather, all options
1998 E430 - sold
1989 300E - 333,000 Km - sold
1977 280E - sold
1971 250 - retired

"And a frign hat. They gave me a hat at the annual benefits meeting. I said. how does this benefit me. I dont have anything from the company.. So they gave me a hat." - TheDon

Since our area has the Ohio river flowing through it, we have a few power plants on it. One of them has a gypsum board plant just below them in a town on the river. They are by the old site of a train yard. Trains still run on those lines. Now if we could just get a bunch of trains loaded with the drywall and sent to NOLA. I know a lotta folks down there who would put it to good use.

that's a frequent event in Florida because of all the land graft and real estate fraud. There are huge tracts of land unsuitable for anything more than sawgrasses and mangrove in which drainage systems and roads were built, lots sold, etc. My favorite is SE of Ft Myers. You can drive a huge rectilinear paved grid with maybe 1 house and a couple of trailers scattered on it.

The biggest water reclamation project that I had (peripheral) involvement with was East of Naples just across and along the interstate. Last I heard it was doing pretty well. I haven't been back since the '90's.

B

Cool, thanks.

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Chris
2007 E550 4Matic - 61,000 Km - Iridium Silver, black leather, Sport package, Premium 2 package
2007 GL450 4Matic - 62,000 Km - Obsidian Black Metallic, black leather, all options
1998 E430 - sold
1989 300E - 333,000 Km - sold
1977 280E - sold
1971 250 - retired

"And a frign hat. They gave me a hat at the annual benefits meeting. I said. how does this benefit me. I dont have anything from the company.. So they gave me a hat." - TheDon

This seems to prove a theory that I have long held about the use of diesel or motor oil in salt marshes for mosquito control being not as bad as it sounds

That makes two this week: I was watching the History Channel last night, and they did a show on the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier. Long story short, they go through something like 600,000 aluminum cans a year. They also use a lot of plastic. They melt down all plastic trash on board into flat disks for storage and later onshore recycling. The cans, they shred into 3" wide pieces and toss them overboard, the bosun in charge claiming they are biodegradable. I had a crusty old hook and line commercial fisherman tell me the same thing 20 years ago--he tore his cans in half and put them over the side and said it was better than them ending up in a landfill where it would take them 50 years to break down or to a recycler which would further pollute and place unnecesary collection burdens on municipalities.

Bobk,
the power plant I work at sells gypsum (byproduct of combusion gas processing) to that drywall plant - I could swear that the power plant (1400MW) makes more gypsum than electricity sometimes....


-John

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2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

Many years ago I was reading about fluidized bed combustion for power plants. TVA was supposed to have a big demonstration plant to mtry it out on a decent scale. Never did hear how well it worked out. That system used limestone too in the process and also produced gypsum. Pretty neat system, but it did have some drawbacks

Some union dude makes $$/hr driving a front-loader half of the day just to move gypsum around before we can convey it to a barge for hauling off (to Lefarge(?) Drywall or a landfill).

I think the lesson here (and on topic) is that, given enough motivation (money, research, legislation(!)) you can make anything into anything (we can even turn matter into energy....in small amounts=)

...the question ends up "how much do you want to spend ?" Kudos to the researchers and buisness-funding-dudes that are trying this out - we only get one earth to legislate from =)

-John

__________________
2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)