IEC: streamlining the environmental control package. [Integrated emission controls]

Integrated emission control (IEC) systems should lower the capital and operating costs of power-plant pollution-control equipment from its present level of 40% of total plant cost. The new IEC systems are no longer considered as plant additions, but are an integral design component. A pilot-plant test facility operated by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) uses coal, which will continue to increase its position as the major fuel for power generation. The IEC approach offers advantages in siting, plant flexibility and reliability, and lower costs for environmental control. The EPRI test facility is comparing five basic equipment configurations: baghouse and wet scrubber, precipitator with a wet scrubber, a baghouse or precipitator with a spray dryer, a baghouse or precipitator with dry sorbent injection upstream of the baghouse, and a hot electrostatic precipitator with a wet scrubber. (DCK)