Alstom’s first-of-its-kind water treatment technology to help utility customers meet EPA Guidelines

Alstom today announced that it has been awarded a contract by a Midwestern utility to supply its Spray Dryer Evaporator (SDE™) technology to treat Wet Flue Gas Desulfurization (WFGD) waste water from two (2) 850 MW coal-fired boilers. This will be the first commercial deployment of this innovative technology, which will help utility and industrial customers meet waste water regulations at a lower lifecycle cost than competing technologies.

Alstom’s SDE technology uses a small slipstream of hot gas from fossil-fired boilers to evaporate waste water such as that produced by WFGD systems. Dissolved and suspended solids in the waste water are dried and collected by the existing downstream particulate collection device.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently updating its Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELG) for electric power plants. When issued in September 2015, the revised ELG will require electric utilities to meet more stringent limits for wastewater prior to discharging to surface water. Facility owners tasked with compliance with these new rules will find that Alstom’s SDE™ technology offers a true Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) solution that can be used on a stand-alone basis or in conjunction with other Wastewater Treatment (WWT) technologies.

SDE™ technology is cost-effective and simple to operate when compared to other potential WWT solutions. Since the waste water is evaporated, this is true ZLD technology meaning that there is no waste stream that must be permitted and monitored.

Alstom’s SDE™ technology is based on its Spray Dryer Absorber (SDA) technology, which has been widely deployed since the mid-1970s to remove acid gases from utility flue gases.