TVA adding emissions controls to Rogersville plant

TVA adding emissions controls to Rogersville plant

February 14, 2007

ROGERSVILLE (WATE) -- The Tennessee Valley Authority says a plan for adding new equipment at its John Sevier Fossil Plant will reduce some emissions by as much as 95 percent.

TVA plans to install equipment to further reduce sulfur dioxide emissions and nitrogen oxide emissions at the 712-megawatt plant in Rogersville. 

Sulfur dioxide contributes to the formation of acid rain and haze problems. Nitrogen oxide contributes to ground-level ozone pollution.

TVA plans to add equipment called selective non-catalytic reduction systems to reduce nitrogen oxide on the four units at John Sevier. And scrubbers will be added to reduce sulfur dioxide. 

When the work is complete, all of TVA's eastern coal-fired plants will have scrubbers to remove sulfur dioxide and advanced nitrogen oxide controls.

According to TVA, selective non-catalytic reduction removes an additional 30-35 percent of the nitrogen oxides from gases emitted at the plant. That's beyond reductions that have been made with the current nitrogen oxide controls.

The first new system to further reduce nitrogen oxide emissions is expected to be in use at John Sevier this summer. The other three units are scheduled to have similar equipment installed by 2010. 

Construction of the scrubbers is scheduled to start in 2008, after an environmental review. They should be finished in 2012.

Scrubbers can remove 95 percent of the sulfur dioxide emissions from the plant. John Sevier presently burns low-sulfur coal to reduce its sulfur dioxide emissions.

"We have reduced our emissions of sulfur dioxide across the system by 80 percent since 1977 and nitrogen oxide emissions during the summer ozone season by 81 percent since 1995," said TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore in a press release. 

The cost of adding the new equipment is estimated at more than $350 million. And about 350 workers are expected to be employed during peak construction time.