Source: ThermoEnergy Corp.
ThermoEnergy Corp. (OTCBB:TMEN) expects that tough new rules on coal-fired power plant emissions which were finalized recently by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will spur demand for effective, efficient, clean combustion technology.
ThermoEnergy's clean combustion technology, once commercialized, would allow power plants to burn coal with near-zero air emissions. The process efficiently captures carbon dioxide in clean form for sequestration or beneficial re-use. In addition, ThermoEnergy's process simultaneously captures SOx, NOx, mercury, and particulates.
Cary Bullock, ThermoEnergy's President and CEO, noted that the company's patented technology for the electric utility industry holds the promise of eliminating harmful air emissions, while capturing nearly 100% of carbon dioxide.
The electric utility industry is expected to invest more than $10 billion by 2016 to install scrubber systems to reduce emissions of NOx, SOx, mercury, and particulates, in addition to carbon dioxide, Bullock noted.
"ThermoEnergy sees a tremendous opportunity ahead, thanks to our proprietary technology and the timing of the stringent new EPA rules," Bullock said.
Bullock said that early targets for ThermoEnergy's technology would be existing power plants where a boiler replacement could be done at a fraction of the cost of building a new plant using conventional technology.
Dr. Ahmed F. Ghoniem, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of ThermoEnergy's scientific advisory board, noted that the type of technology used by ThermoEnergy is expected to provide an increase in thermal efficiency for power plants versus certain other technologies that are attempting to reach commercialization.
