Norit Americas Selects Engineer and Plans for Major Furnace Addition at Texas Plant

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Norit Americas Incorporated (Marshall, Texas), a subsidiary of Norit Nederland B.V. (Klazienaveen, Netherlands), is preparing permit applications for the addition of a large multi-hearth furnace at its activated carbon plant in Marshall, Texas. Norit has hired Flour Daniel Incorporated (NYSE:FLR) (Greenville, South Carolina) to assist with preliminary design and permit engineering. Norit plans to submit its permit request within the next few weeks and expects the permitting process to last well into 2006.

The expansion will include a new furnace capable of processing approximately 15,000 tons per year of lignite coal at an estimated cost of $20 million to $30 million. Recognizing the environmental significance of processing coal, this process addition will include scrubber technology, 40 to 50 bag filters located throughout the unit, afterburners, low NOx burners for supplemental gas firing and more.

Once permits have been secured, Norit plans to select and hire an E+P+C/M contractor to complete engineering, scheduling, and selection of long-lead equipment. Construction could potentially begin early next summer.

This project was originally reported as part of Industrialinfo.com’s North American Projects Database in February of 2004. Demand for activated carbon is expected to increase in coming years as its use in mercury reduction technology in power plants increases. Activated carbon can be added to the flue gas streams within power plants to help capture larger amounts of mercury from emission streams and meet increasingly stringent mercury reduction compliance standards.

There are only four producers of activated carbon in the United States, totaling nine different plant locations. Norit owns and operates two of those plant locations and is recognized as one of the largest producers with an estimated capacity exceeding 130 million pounds per year of specialized activated carbons.

In Norit’s Pryor, Oklahoma plant, engineering plans are being evaluated for the installation of a new waste heat recovery boiler addition to capture waste heat streams and produce an additional 50,000 pounds per hour of process steam. A small turbine will also be included in this nearly $3 million project to increase system pressure in the activated carbon plant processes. Construction could begin this fall if the project is approved this quarter.

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