September 28, 2006

SO₃ Hot Topic Hour is a Marathon 2.5 Hours with 45 Participants

We have an 800 lb gorilla in the powerful web/phone format used in our weekly Hot Topic Hours. For better or worse a scheduled 80 minute meeting lasted 160 minutes. There were some great presentations and there were questions for each of the nine presenters. We recorded the session so that subscribers will be able to access on demand the full audio/visual 160 minutes.

It is going to take a week or so to add all the bells and whistles (actually servers and software) to handle the streaming media and all the extras that are required. But we will then be providing access to the last three Hot Topic Hours, as well as those in the future.

Suppliers of catalyst were scheduled to talk about SO₂ to SO₃ oxidation but because of the length of the discussion yesterday, their presentations have been moved to the SCR Catalyst Hot Topic Hour on October 14.

There is an extra bonus for classical music (or classical non-music) lovers. One of our participants decided to punch the “hold” button for the last 40 minutes and the speakers had to talk above the noise of background music.

Subscribers to the Utility Environmental Tracking System or Power Plant Air Quality Decisions will be able to access the previous Hot Topic Hours from the relevant section of the Decision Tree. The power points for all the nine presenters are accessible as part of the SO₃ branch of the FGD Decision Tree. The presenters were:

Overview                                                                           

   Bill Ellison- Ellison Consultants

Wet Precipitators                                                               

   John Caine- SEI                                                              

   Buzz Reynolds – Wheelabrator                                      

   Steve Jaasund – A.H. Lundberg                                       

Air Preheaters                                                                    

   Rich Staehle –Marsulex                                                   

Additives

   Mike Schantz- Chemical Lime                                           

   Keith Day- O'Brien & Gere                                             

   Travis Vaughn –FMC                                                   

   Sterling Gray- URS                                                       

Bill Ellison kicked off the meeting with a summary of the DOE SO₃ conference which is quite comprehensive. Here are the links to this summary plus the power points he used in his keynote speech at the SO₃ conference.

Continuing Decision Process For: Options

SO₃ - The local damage due to sulfuric acid mist has become a huge problem for plants installing scrubbers. Increases in PM_2.5, reduced mercury capture, bag plugging, and air heater fouling are also significant problems. There is SO₃ reduction through the scrubber, but there is also gas cooling. So the residual SO₃ and subsequent mist is likely to fall in a more concentrated mass on nearby towns. The ramifications of SO₃ emissions therefore become one of the important decision areas for scrubber purchasers. Fuel switching, catalyst changes, air heater temperature reduction, additives and wet precipitators are all options. You can proceed to specific technologies through the branches above or proceed to an overview by Bill Ellison.

Ellison NETL Conference Summary for Hot Topic Hour September 28.

http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/FGD_Decision_Tree/subscriber/Tree/DescriptionTextLinks/Focus of DOE NETL Conferences on Sulfur Trioxide.htm

Keynote speech at the NETL Conference by Ellison.

http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/FGD_Decision_Tree/subscriber/Tree/DescriptionTextLinks/SO₃ Power Point for May 18 2006 Revised May 8.ppt
 

To access the power points for the other speakers just click on the links below.

Continuing Decision Process For: Sources