AS HIGHER STANDARDS for air emissions approach for the paper industry, the need has increased to find pollution controls for coal-fired boilers that are both effective and lower cost. Roughly 50 pulp and paper mills in the US have coal-fired boilers and are now faced with complying with upcoming regulations. This is a global issue because coal is used in the paper industry in most regions of the world due to its availability and low cost. The utilities industry also faces issues with the same pollutants in attempts to comply with their own set of upcoming regulations with some of these companies having up to 70-80% of their power generation from coal-fired boilers. The challenge here is that controls for PM, NOx, SO,, and mercury are often separate systems, requiring large amounts of capital, and difficulties with simultaneously achieving optimal removal efficiencies with all pollutants. The high cost of these technologies is a major factor in delaying implementation of improved controls at a more rapid pace, and is also resulting in large numbers of older boilers that will retire due to the cost of the controls not being justified.
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