Backfitting Powerplants to Control Emissions Is Picking Up Steam
LOOMING Flue-gas desulfurization is beginning to move into the market as SCR installations are coming to an end. (Photo courtesy of Babcock Power Environmental Inc.)
Before the Enron and WorldCom debacles and subsequent telecom meltdown, the outlook for new powerplant construction had engineering and construction firms juiced about their future. But scandal, a slumping economy and prolonged anxiety about war in Iraq have short-circuited any near-term hope for sector expansion. If there is a silver lining for power engineers and contractors, it's in the pollution-control retrofit market. One consultant predicts the U.S. flue-gas desulfurization market will top $20 billion over the next decade. That may be high, but even the most bearish analysts peg the market at $13 billion to $14 billion.