NOx control buys to peak in `98

Titles I and IV of the Clean Air Act provide the legislative framework for a huge NOx reduction program now in operation. This reduction will have a substantial effect in reducing ground-level ozone. A new McIlvaine report concludes that US utilities and industrial companies during the next 10 years will spend more than $800 million annually to meet CAA`s NOx-control regulations. Much of that investment will be for low-NOx burners, which minimize NOx formation. Many utilities and industrial boilers can be retrofitted with a new generation of burners; however, this technology achieves less than 50% NOx reduction. Post-combustion technologies, such as selective catalytic reduction and selective noncatalytic reduction, can reduce NOx as much as 90%. Therefore, plants needing greater NOx reduction will use post-combustion technologies, often in combination with low-NOx burners. The peak order year for NOx-control equipment will be 1998, primarily because Title IV of CAA requires utilities to comply by 2000. Many industrial sources also will be ordering equipment in 1998.