According to the McIlvaine Co. report, World Markets for Your Products, companies in the United States are planning to build hundreds of ethanol production plants to supplement the gasoline market. The report anticipates that many of the new plants will be constructed using coal as the energy source, and the impact of the coal-firing could add billions of dollars in equipment revenues for pollution control.

Five plants already in operation or under construction in the U.S. are using coal-fired boilers with a cost of $45 million each. This includes the boiler, material handling systems, fabric filters, non-selective catalytic reduction for NOx, and dry scrubbers using lime for SO2 removal.

All coal-fired plants require the same instrumentation and continuous air pollution monitors used by the large plants, and according to the report, this could mean a large market for suppliers of these instruments.

Coal-firing boosts the market for liquid/solid separation equipment. Centrifuges and other filters are required in the ethanol processing. Since some of the coal-fired boilers will be fitted with wet scrubbers, the report suggested that the market for wastewater separation equipment will also be positively impacted.

The market for pumps and valves used in ethanol processing is already substantial, according to the report, which noted the addition of coal-firing could potentially increase 30 percent. The same held true in the report for the water and wastewater treatment chemicals market, with the exception of lime, which was projected for greater potential. Due to the need for SO2 removal, the market for lime was projected to greatly increase where coal-firing is utilized.

McIlvaine predicted that most ethanol plants in the future will rely on coal. However, there are several attractive alternatives to building dedicated small coal generators. One route being demonstrated at the Coal Creek Power Plant by Blue Flint Ethanol and Great Rivers Energy is to co-locate the ethanol plant with an existing coal-fired steam generator. The waste steam will supply the ethanol plant. This greatly reduces the capital cost and increases the theoretical efficiency of the coal plant. Visit www.mcilvainecompany.com for more information.