Pollution controls being installed at the Presque Isle Power Plant in Marquette will demonstrate the first example of what may be the nation's next-generation process for removing mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Called the "TOXECON" process, the $52.9 million pollution control system is expected to capture 80 percent of mercury emissions at the plant, as well as reduce particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. The project is being funded nearly 50-50 by a joint venture of the plant's owner, We Energies, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

"If successful," said a DOE statement, "Toxecon may be the primary mercury control choice for users of western coals, and the only choice for units burning any coal type with hot-side electrostatic precipitators - markets totaling 68 gigawatts of electric power production, which is approximately 22 percent of the nation's coal-based generation."

In other words, the technology has the potential to significantly reduce coal burning plants' mercury emissions.

Under the agreement, We Energies will design, install, operate and evaluate the Toxecon process. The project will be partially funded ($24.8 million) by the DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Rod Miller, the principal representative on the project for We Energies, said the utility won a competitive process to have the new technology installed at the Presque Isle plant. "It's really a great opportunity for us," he said. "This technology has worked in small-scale applications, but has never been used on a utility-sized boiler."

In the Toxecon process, "sorbents" are injected into the power plant's gas stream to absorb the pollutants so they can be captured by the baghouse section of the Toxecon, preventing their release into the atmosphere.

The Presque Isle Toxecon project began with foundation work last fall. New baghouse equipment that contains vacuum bag-like structures and related ductwork are being built near the existing fine particle control systems. After this work is complete in December 2005, final connections between the new and existing equipment will be made during a planned shut down at the plant. When it's brought online, the new Toxecon process will be extensively tested and evaluated before it can be used for future applications elsewhere.

The Presque Isle plant, which came on line in 1956, has nine boilers, and is rated at a total of 617 megawatts. The Toxecon system will treat the gas stream from the plant's three most efficient boilers, 7, 8 and 9. Two other non-Toxecon-designed baghouses are also currently being installed on Units 5 and 6 at Presque Isle. A baghouse was installed at Units 1-4 in 1999.

The Toxecon is expected to capture about 80 pounds or mercury per year. It is also expected to capture 1,145 tons per year of sulfur dioxide (a 30 percent reduction) and 428 tons per year of nitrogen oxides (70 percent reduction), beyond what Presque Isle's pollution controls currently remove.

An additional feature allows the company to reuse captured fly ash. Instead of paying to have the ash hauled to a landfill, the ash can be sold for use in concrete applications.

Earth Sciences, Inc. and its subsidiary, ADA Environmental Solutions, are providing the technology. Contractors on the project include Wheelabrator, Boldt and Jamar. About 160 construction workers are on site, said Dick Johnson, We Energies' principal engineer/air quality.

"The craft workers are working out well," he said. "We have an accelerated schedule, but we're right about where we want to be."

INSTALLING SLIDE plates on a baghouse duct at the We Energies Toxecon project are Bill Nelson of Boilermakers Local 169 and and Darren Lewis of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 506. They were working for Boldt.

THIS IS the Toxecon baghouse superstructure, with Local 8 iron worker Tim Wolf walking a beam at the top.