NEWSRELEASE

ORLANDO, FLA. — Dec. 9, 1998 — Gas Research Institute (GRI) today announced the signing of licensing agreements for two technologies that use controlled natural gas injection as a low-cost option for reducing pollution from coal-burning power plants and other industrial facilities. The announcement was made at Power Gen International ’98 in Orlando.

The agreements are with Fuel Tech Inc., Naperville, Ill., which will be the exclusive licensee for Amine-Enhanced FLGR™ (AE/FLGR) technology and co-exclusive licensee for Fuel Lean Gas Reburning™ (FLGR), along with ESA Environmental Solutions LLC, Pittsburgh. The companies will sell the hardware and provide the engineering services and equipment necessary to use the technologies. Andover Technology Partners, North Andover, Mass., assisted GRI in the commercial licensing efforts.

"Over the next five years, more than 500 facilities nationwide are expected to add new pollution-control equipment to meet increasingly stricter emissions standards," said John Pratapas, GRI principal technology manager. "These GRI technologies provide coal-burning power plants a competitive option for reducing nitrogen oxide (NO_x) emissions, a key ingredient in the formation of smog and the deposition of acid rain. In addition, both technologies offer added potential to improve furnace efficiencies, reduce particulate emissions, and increase generation capacity."

  "We have been encouraged by the enthusiastic response from the electric utility industry, which has expressed a great deal of interest in these technologies," said Steve Argabright, president of Fuel Tech. "Operators of coal-burning power plants—particularly in the Northeast, Midwest and Southeast—are eager to identify inexpensive approaches offered by these two technologies for reducing their air pollution emissions."

"Commercialization of these technologies is the culmination of patents written by Energy Systems Associates over the past 10 years," said Bernard P. Breen, president of Energy Systems Associates and ESA Environmental Solutions Ltd. "This sophisticated gas injection technology uses natural gas as an active reducing agent to temper the nitric oxide generated from a coal furnace. Along with Amine Enhancement (AE/FLGR) and advanced control techniques, this technology may result in NO_x reductions equivalent to Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) at a fraction of the cost."

Like conventional gas reburning systems, FLGR and AE/FLGR use natural gas injected above a furnace’s main combustion zone to reduce much of the NO_x to harmless levels. With these technologies, however, the natural gas is injected in lower quantities using methods that maintain overall fuel-lean conditions in the furnace. This avoids the requirement for and associated cost of the over-fire air system used in conventional gas reburn. The natural gas jets are also designed and configured to provide for optimum NO_x reductions using the least amount of natural gas.

  During the past few years, GRI, its technology suppliers and several host utilities have supported technology demonstrations at Commonwealth Edison’s Joliet Station in Illinois; Duquesne Light Company’s Elrama Station near Pittsburgh; Duke Energy’s Riverbend Station near Charlotte, N.C.; and Public Service Electric & Gas Company’s (PSE&G) Mercer Station near Trenton, N.J. In these tests, FLGR reduced NO_x by 30 to 50 percent from different baselines and load conditions, using 3 to 7 per-cent natural gas as fuel input. Technical papers on specific results have been presented at leading conferences and are available for review.

PSE&G recently agreed to terms for the nation’s first commercial installation of the AE/FLGR technology on the entire Mercer Station, which has 640 megawatt capacity. Full operation is scheduled for the 1999 summer ozone season. Previously, the AE/FLGR technology demonstrated 50 to 70 percent NO_x emissions reductions from uncontrolled levels at Mercer Furnace 22 using 6 to 7 percent natural gas heat input (with urea injection).

  For more information, contact John Pratapas, GRI, at (773) 399-8301; Vince Albanese, Fuel Tech, at (630) 983-3254; or Ben Breen, ESA Environmental Solutions, at (412) 429-3259.

Fuel Tech is a leading supplier of air pollution-control technology to the electric utility, municipal waste combustion and industrial combustion markets. Fuel Tech's NO_xOUT technology is used to reduce NO_x on hundreds of facilities worldwide. Fuel Tech has sales offices in Naperville and Stamford, Conn.

ESA Environmental Solutions is a joint venture of Energy Systems Associates Inc. and Equipment and Controls Inc., both of Pittsburgh. Energy Systems Associates is a development partner with GRI of the FLGR technology. Energy Systems Associates performs combustion modifications and improves combustion system operation at electric utility boilers and other industrial facilities throughout North America.

GRI, established in 1976, manages cooperative R&D programs for its 335 members and the natural gas industry. GRI conducts R&D that benefits the entire industry and its customers; and targeted benefits R&D in which consortia and individual organizations partner with GRI to develop or apply technologies to improve their competitiveness and benefit customers in specific gas and related energy markets.

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