Alcoa's Warrick Power Plant Turns on First Scrubber A $500 million project to improve the environment with the installation of Wet Flue Gas Desulphurization technology (scrubbers) at Alcoa's Warrick Power Plant took a significant step forward in May when the first of four units went online. Construction started in 2005, and once completed later this year, the scrubbers will provide for a:
98% reduction in Sulfur Dioxide (SO2)
99% reduction in Hydrochloric Acid (HC1)
60% reduction in mercury (Hg)
50% reduction in Sulfuric Acid (H2SO4)
49% reduction in Particulate Matter (PM) During this time, hundreds of local contractors have worked at the site constructing an integrated environmental control system at the Warrick Power Plant that will ultimately include Wet Flue Gas Desulphurization spray/absorption towers, flue gas booster fans, and support facilities. Major physical changes at the plant include new stack configurations, slurry handling and preparation facilities, water treatment facilities to reuse Warrick Operations discharge waters, dry fly-ash handling, an electrical sub-station, and improved control facilities for the entire system. More than 25 new, permanent employees have been hired to operate the new equipment. "This is a significant investment to reduce emissions well beyond anything required by regulation while increasing the global competitiveness of the Warrick Operations," said G. Royce Haws, Primary Metals Location Manager. "It is a strong demonstration of Alcoa's commitment to sustainability and to the future of Warrick Operations. It is securing jobs at Alcoa, increasing work for the area's construction industry, and significantly contributing to a cleaner local environment. The benefits to the region are immense." The Warrick Power Plant Unit 2 had been taken out of production in April to allow the scrubber to be tied-in to the unit. Now that the scrubber is an integral part of the unit, it will not be possible to operate Unit 2 for production of power without also operating the scrubber. Area residents can visibly see the work of the scrubber as the process creates a white water vapor plume coming from one of the new, gray chimneys constructed alongside the familiar red and white stacks. The Warrick Power Plant is a four-unit, 742 megawatt (MW), coal-fired, steam-electric generating facility. Units 1, 2 and 3, rated at 144 MW each, and one-half of the 300 MW Unit 4 are owned by Alcoa. Vectren, provider of natural gas and electricity to the region, owns the other half of Unit 4. All of these units were placed in service between 1960 and 1970. Of the Alcoa-owned generation, nearly all of the power is provided to Warrick Operations.
(and I helped!)
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Friday, May 16, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Friday, May 09, 2008
May 10, 2008 is Pangea Day!
What is Pangea Day?
Pangea Day taps the power of film to strengthen tolerance and compassion while uniting millions of people to build a better future.
In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it's easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that — to help people see themselves in others — through the power of film.
On May 10, 2008 — Pangea Day — sites in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked live to produce a program of powerful films, visionary speakers, and uplifting music.
The program will be broadcast live to the world through the Internet, television, digital cinemas, and mobile phones.
Of course, movies alone can't change the world. But the people who watch them can. So following May 10, 2008, Pangea Day organizers will facilitate community-building activities around the world by connecting inspired viewers with numerous organizations that are already doing groundbreaking work.
Check it out.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
from Utne & Ecologist:
Environment
Crunching Numbers for the Planet(Green Living, Global Warming, Energy) Permanent link
The kernel at the core of every conventional economic model is alluringly simple: Growth is good. But due in large part to our planet’s finite resources, this premise is fundamentally flawed, the April issue of the Ecologist points out in an enlightening group of stories dubbed “The Earth vs. the Economy” (articles not available online) that call into question everything we’ve been taught about goods and services, supply and demand.
“When Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations, life was hard, the world vast and the supply depot of nature seemed without limit. . . . How could goods lead to anything but good?” writes Jonathan Rowe in the leadoff article, “The End of Economics.”
“More than two centuries later, that assumption no longer works. . . . The connection between wealth and weal, goods and good, has become increasingly frayed,” he posits. Rowe goes on to construct a withering critique of prevailing economic thought and describe the “epidemic of market-related disease” that is sickening both humans and the planet.
In subsequent articles, ecological economist Herman E. Daly puts forth the framework of a new economic model, and Andrew Simms points out that the current British recession (sound familiar?) may present “a good time for a rethink” of old assumptions. Simms reminds us that such thinking isn’t entirely new, or even all that radical: Forty years ago, he notes, Robert Kennedy famously pointed out that the GNP measures everything “except that which makes life worthwhile.”
—Keith Goetzman
p.s.full text of RFK quote:
“Too much and too long we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values to the mere accumulation of material things…The gross national product measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile, and it can tell us everything about America—except whether we are proud to be Americans.” (Robert F. Kennedy BiographyPolitical Figure and Government Official, 1925-1968 Address, University of Kansas, March 18, 1968)
~A.
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