Options for compliance with acid rain legislation

Acid rain control legislation as a part of the Clean Air Act amendments of 1989 will require reduction of utility sulfur dioxide (SO{sub 2}) emissions by 10 million tons* annually in two phases over a 10-year period. Emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO{sub x}) will also be reduced by 2 to 2.5 million tons per year. Available options for achieving compliance include fuel switching, fuel blending, and a wide variety of retrofit technologies. This paper describes the House and Senate versions of the acid rain legislation and presents the available options for compliance. Technologies considered include slagging combustors, furnace sorbent injection, duct sorbent injection, repowering technologies, low-NO{sub x} burners, reburning, selective catalytic reduction, selective noncatalytic reduction, and wet and dry flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems. The relative costs, SO{sub 2} or NO{sub x} reduction capabilities, and site impacts of each compliance option are also described.