Scrubbing the Air Clean

New technology can reduce air and land pollution

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Stacks from the Kammer-Mitchell power plant in West Virginia now discharge mostly water vapor rather than polluted smoke thanks to “scrubbers” installed to clean the air. (Photo: Courtesy of Samantha Roberts)

The smokestacks at a power plant in West Virginia billow white smoke into the air. At the Kammer-Mitchell plant in Moundsville, that smoke used to carry a lot of dangerous pollutants into the air. Now the smoke is mostly water vapor, thanks to the use of scrubbers.

“Scrubbers reduce nitric oxide, a toxic air pollutant, by about 90 percent or more and sulfur dioxide by 95 percent or more,” said Wayne Irons, plant manager at Kammer-Mitchell. The Kammer-Mitchell plant is currently undergoing an $800-million upgrade of its equipment, which will help lower air pollution.

Coal-fired power plants like Kammer-Mitchell have long been major producers of greenhouse gases like nitric oxide, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide. These gases are said to cause smog and acid rain and may contribute to global warming. They also irritate breathing passages and can damage the lungs.

Installing scrubbers in power plants helps reduce the amount of these gases sent into the air.

“We run the gases through a scrubber module and we spray a lime stone slurry through a bunch of nozzles and trays, and that interacts with the gas stream to remove all the sulfur,” Irons told Scholastic News Online.

Scrubbers create an interesting by-product—one that can be used to help preserve the environment in other ways. The by-product is gypsum, which is used to make wallboard, a material used in building houses.

“Making a by-product such as this prevents us from having to bury it in the ground,” Irons said. Using gypsum created by power plants also reduces the need to mine gypsum underground, saving trees and land.

Kammer-Mitchell is only one of the nation’s many coal-powered power plants now undergoing upgrades to cut air pollution. The West Virginia plant is owned and operated by American Electric Power (AEP), which is among the largest electric utilitie companies in the United States. AEP delivers electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states.

EARTH DAY

Celebrate Earth Day with Scholastic News Online! Learn more about how you can help take care of our planet in this special report.

Samantha Roberts is a member of the Scholastic Kids Press Corps.

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