Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is putting smokestack scrubbers at its Kingston, Tenn., plant, which will clean a greenhouse gas that comes out of its smokestacks and into the air. But in order to do so, the nation’s largest utility will also have to create a new landfill to store the material left behind.

The scrubbers will remove sulfur dioxide, a greenhouse gas produced by burning fossil fuels, by venting flue gas through a limestone slurry shower. During this process, the limestone reacts with the sulfur creating gypsum, a stable, nontoxic material that can be recycled and used as an additive in wallboard and concrete.

The first two scrubbers will go into operation next week. A second will begin next spring. Currently, the sulfur dioxide is released into the air through the smokestacks, causing haze and acid rains in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It also contributes to respiratory illness. The scrubbers will remove an estimated 95 percent of the sulfur dioxide emissions that seep into the air.

The TVA’s Kingston plant generated an estimated 50,000 tons of sulfur dioxide last year. Once the scrubbers are operating, the plant will produce 300,000-400,000 tons of gypsum.

The changes were spurred by a lawsuit that ordered the utility to significantly reduce pollution from four of its coal-firing plants by December 2013. TVA is also committing $2 billion to convert all coal operations from wet storage to dry storage, a direct reaction to the massive coal ash spill last year in east Tennessee.

Source: Associated Press

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