Nalco, Argonne team up to improve water management for coal-based power plants

ARGONNE, Ill. (Dec. 14, 2006) — Nalco Company, the global leader in industrial water treatment, and Argonne National Laboratory today announced a joint research partnership to develop advanced technologies to reduce, reuse and recover power plant cooling water.

Cooling water is essential to power plants, which consume more than 100 billion gallons daily in the United States. Advances in technology have the potential to reduce fossil fuel power plant water withdrawal and consumption, leading to more efficient use of water and energy.

"Coal-based power plants have re-emerged as the preferred fuel type in new plants to be built in the next decade," said Tom Archakis, Global Marketing Manager for Nalco's Power Strategic Business Unit. "Increasingly, water management has become a crucial issue for construction and operation of power plants."

"Argonne National Laboratory has unique R&D capabilities in advanced separations technologies, which complement Nalco's strengths,” added Manian Ramesh, Nalco Vice President, Research and Development. “Partnering with Argonne enables Nalco to use a wider range of technical approaches and develop the best solution for the power industry."

“We are excited by the opportunity to work with Nalco, a company that develops state-of-the-art water treatment technologies,” stated Seth Snyder, a biochemical engineer and the leader of the Chemical and Biotechnology Section in Argonne's Energy Systems Division. “This project enables us to see ideas that started as computer models, developed by co-investigator Yupo J. Lin, grow into technologies that meet a growing societal need to reduce fresh water use and waste water discharge.”

Under the partnership, Nalco and Argonne will develop the technology, knowledge and strategies for optimum water utilization, resulting in lower treatment costs and less environmental impacts. This three-year research project is funded jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Energy Technology Laboratory's (NETL) Innovations for Existing Plants (IEP) program and Nalco.

Innovations for Existing Plants

The research is part of the National Energy Technology Laboratory's Innovations for Existing Plants (IEP) program. The IEP program's goal is to reduce power plant freshwater withdrawals and consumption by 5 to 10 billion gallons of water per day through the development and application of advanced technologies for continued electricity generation with minimal environmental impacts.

The overall objective of Nalco-Argonne project is to develop advanced technologies to enable coal-based power plants to use impaired water in re-circulating cooling systems. Impaired water is defined as water not meeting state water quality standards. The use of impaired water is technically and economically challenging due to additional physical and chemical treatment requirements to address scaling, corrosion and microbiological fouling. The Nalco-Argonne research will focus on methods to economically manage scaling issues. The overall approach will be to use synergistic combinations of physical technologies such as membrane separation to reduce scaling, as well as chemical technologies such as scale inhibitors to extend the safe operating range of the system to maximize water utilization efficiency and minimize waste discharge.

Under the partnership, Nalco and Argonne will develop the technology, knowledge and strategies for optimum removal and management of scale-forming precursors. The project team will devise membrane separation technologies that are efficient, economical and compatible with scale inhibitors. The new scale inhibitor chemistries from this work will handle the higher-stress scaling conditions as well as new types of scale from impaired water, resulting in lower treatment costs and reduced environmental impacts.

Coal-based power plant currently generate about 50 percent of electricity in the United States and coal has re-emerged as the preferred fuel type in new power plants to be built in the next 3-10 years. Ninety-three gigawatts of new coal-fired power plants are now planned, representing 153 coal-fired power plants.

About Naclo and Argonne National Laboratory

Nalco is the leading provider of integrated water treatment and process improvement services, chemicals and equipment programs for industrial and institutional applications. The company currently serves more than 70,000 customer locations representing a broad range of end markets. It has established a global presence with more than 10,900 employees operating in 130 countries supported by a comprehensive network of manufacturing facilities, sales offices and research centers. In 2005, Nalco achieved sales of more than $3.3 billion. For more information, visit: www.nalco.com.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America 's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

For more information, please contact Eleanor Taylor (630/252-5510 or media@anl.gov) at Argonne.