DTE Energy s Monroe plant to get pollution controls

2/19/2007

DETROIT DTE Energy Co. is spending more than $1 billion on its Monroe power plant as part of a five-year effort to comply with federal rules to reduce emissions.

The Detroit-based utility, which owns Detroit Edison and Michigan Consolidated Gas, will install two flue gas desulfurization units or scrubbers and a selective catalytic reduction unit. The new equipment will be able to control up to 97 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions and 80 percent of mercury emissions at the facility.

The coal-fired plant, the utility s largest, has already seen a 63 percent drop in emissions of sulfur dioxide, an irritant to the human respiratory system. Emissions of nitrogen oxide, which contributes to acid rain, smog and global warming, have fallen 56 percent.

We ve been doing a lot in this area, and it s really getting much better, Skiles Boyd, DTE s vice president of environmental management and resources, told the Detroit Free Press for a Monday story.

The project will put the facility ahead of federal mandates under the Clean Air Interstate Rule and the Clean Air Mercury Rule that start in 2015.

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