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- ERG delivers FGD (flue gas desulphurisation) system for Ferrybridge Carbon Capture project

August 2011. Horsham UK based ERG (Air Pollution Control) Ltd has installed a £¾M flue gas desulphurisation unit to Ferrybridge power station as part of a carbon capture pilot project.

Scrubber and cooling towers under constructionThe ERG system acts as a final flue gas “polishing” stage to reduce SO2 and particulate concentrations to required levels before the flue gas is passed to a downstream “post combustion carbon capture” unit which will remove 100 tonnes of carbon per day from the flue gases emitted by the Ferrybridge coal fired power station.

The unit was supplied to Doosan Power Systems, appointed by Ferrybridge owner, SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy), for the engineering design and operation of the carbon capture plant at the Yorkshire power station.

Pictured right: the scrubber and cooling towers during construction

The main components of the ERG system are a two-stage “polishing” tray scrubber and a direct contact packed tower cooler. ERG has also supplied additional equipment such as recirculation pumps, a fan, scrubbing liquor storage tanks, and ancillary instrumentation and control equipment. The unit will treat about 30,000m3/hr of flue gas, and will remove 80% to 90% of the SO2 and particulates present in the flue gas to condition it for the downstream carbon capture process. The unit is scheduled to be operational in 2011.

The scrubber and the cooler are each 9m tall and 2m diameter and are constructed from GRP / Polypropylene to ERG's specification. The Ferrybridge carbon capture project is a pilot trial to prove the technology for post combustion carbon capture by treating a 1% side stream of the flue gases from the power plant, making it Europe's largest post carbon capture project of this type, and demonstrates the participants' commitment to clean coal technology.

The completion of this project further consolidates ERG's position as a leader in the design and supply of industrial air pollution control systems for the process industries. Other major industrial projects that ERG has completed in the last year include: a methane conditioning plant for the world largest fertiliser production site in Qatar, a hydrochloric acid fume scrubber for a petrochemicals refinery in Kazakhstan, a silicon tetra-fluoride scrubber for phosphate fertiliser production in Egypt, a solvent recovery scrubber for a synthetic textiles manufacture, and treatment plants for cleaning specialty gases used in optical fibres and electronics both in South Korea and the UK.

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- Air quality maintained at seaside resort

August 2011 - ERG (Air Pollution Control) has completed a major £300k project to refurbish the odour control plant at the East Worthing Wastewater Treatment Works belonging to Southern Water. The project was undertaken on behalf of main contractor Barhale Trant Utilities, and is in addition to the regular preventative maintenance programme that ERG carries out on behalf of Southern Water.

The two wet chemical scrubbersThe main task for ERG was the replacement of two large odour control wet chemical scrubbers. These were housed inside a large portal frame building where there was extremely restricted access. This provided the project team with their greatest challenge, as the old scrubbers had to be dismantled in situ. The newly fabricated replacement units were then craned in sections into the building via the roof, which had to be opened up especially for the task. This was an extremely delicate operation, as at times there were only inches to spare, as the vessels were manoeuvred past internal beams and structures.

Pictured right: The two wet chemical scrubbers after installation

In order to guarantee an uninterrupted continuous operation, Nick James, ERG's senior project manager, explained “The scrubbers, which operate in parallel, were replaced one at a time, with the first new scrubber being commissioned and brought into service before the second old unit was decommissioned and removed”.

The new scrubbers are constructed from a composite of PVC/GRP with polypropylene internal packing. Weighing approximately 5 tonnes, each measures 3 metres in diameter and 9 metres tall.

With each scrubber capable of treating over 62,000 m3/hr of odorous air, the refurbished odour control system is now operating with an H2S removal efficiency of >99%, thereby helping reduce the impact of odours in this sensitive urban location near a popular tourist location and close to the beach.

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- ERG completes acid fume treatment project in Central Asia

Horsham, West Sussex, 13 December 2010. Horsham, UK based ERG (Air Pollution Control) Ltd has completed a £300k project to supply an acid fume scrubber to Kazakhstan. The client is the petrochemical giant, Tengizchevroil, which is a joint venture between Chrevron, Exxon Mobil, and local Kazakh operators KazMunaiGas and LukArco.

The client needed the scrubber to treat hydrochloric acid (HCl) fumes which are given off from a 50m3 storage tank containing concentrated HCl. The normal operating temperature range of the fumes is 20°C to 44°C, but Tengizchevroil specified an operating range for the fume scrubber between -40°C to 75°C to allow for extreme Kazakh weather conditions as well as an operating margin. To add to the technical challenge, the client also specified that the scrubber should be capable of handling pressures up to 6 atmospheres.

TCO scrubber unitPictured Right: The scrubber unit installed on site in Kazakhstan.

Under normal operation, the concentration of HCl in the extracted fumes is 130,000 ppm, but this can rise to in excess of 500,000 ppm at the extreme operating limits. The ERG designed scrubber reduces the HCl content down to less than 2ppm – an impressive extraction efficiency of more than 99.99%.

The key part of the scrubbing system is a packed tower scrubber. This uses water as a scrubbing liquor to capture the displaced HCl fumes that are expelled as the storage tank is filled.

The scrubber is mounted on a 3.4m3 recirculation tank, and along with a recirculation pump and associated pipe-work, the complete system is supplied on a 304L stainless steel skid. The pump re-circulates the scrub liquor water from the tank to the packed tower. Mains water is supplied to the recirculation tank to make up evaporation losses. To monitor the build up of HCl in the scrubbing liquor, samples are taken by means of a safe sampling valve that can be linked to a conductivity or pH instrument. The unit also allows ambient air to be drawn into the tank as the HCl is drawn off for use.

The cleaned fumes containing <2ppm HCl pass through a pad type demister before being discharged to atmosphere.

The unit was built in Yorkshire and left the UK in Oct on its 4,000+ mile 6-week overland journey across Europe and Russia to the refinery site at Atyrau on the Caspian Sea.

Contact ERG for more details

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