Environmental facts-at-a-glance
- Since passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970, FirstEnergy has spent more than $5 billion on environmental protection efforts, resulting in dramatic reductions in emissions.
- Since 1990, SO2 emissions have been reduced by more than 55 percent, NOx emissions have been reduced by more than 65 percent, and our CO2 emission rate (pounds of CO2 per kWh) has dropped by 10 percent. View charts
- FirstEnergy's generation profile is composed of 55 percent coal-fired and 29 percent non-emitting nuclear generation. The remaining generation comes from oil, natural gas and pumped storage hydro generation. Nearly 60 percent of FirstEnergy's generation comes from non-emitting nuclear and scrubbed coal-fired plants.
- Since 1990, FirstEnergy has retired nearly 1,400 MW of older coal-based generation while adding about 900 MW of non-emitting nuclear capacity.
- FirstEnergy coal-fired generating plants use numerous technologies to reduce emissions, including scrubbers, bag houses, electrostatic precipitators, blended coal, sorbent injection, low-NOx burners, selective non-catalytic reduction and selective catalytic reduction. Recent reduction initiatives include:
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- An investment of $130 million in low-NOx burners at 19 of 24 coal-fired boilers, which represents nearly 90 percent of our coal-fired generation.
- A $196-million investment for Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) at the Bruce Mansfield Plant in Shippingport, PA.
- A $184-million investment in a circulating fluidized bed boiler at the Bay Shore Plant in Oregon, Ohio. This boiler, which burns petroleum coke from the nearby British Petroleum (BP) refinery, was the first in Ohio to operate at the most recent NOx emission rate established by EPA's NOx reduction plan. Find out more...
- A multi-pollutant control technology on the R.E. Burger Power Station near Shadyside, Ohio. The Electro-Catalytic Oxidation (TM), or ECO, technology has demonstrated, on a pilot basis, removal of nearly all SO2 emissions, up to 90 percent of NOx emissions and up to 85 percent of mercury emissions. Read more about ECO technology.
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(07/08/08)
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