Waste Systems International, Inc. Expands Into Western/Central Massachusetts
LEXINGTON, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sept. 23, 1998–Waste Systems International, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSII), a fully integrated non-hazardous solid waste management company, announced today that it has entered the Western/Central Massachusetts markets through the acquisition of a collection company and transfer station. The combined operations will initially have annualized revenues of approximately $5 million. The Company anticipates integrating these operations with its South Hadley, Massachusetts landfill, which is expected to open during the first half of 1999.
“We are delighted to be adding Western/Central Massachusetts to our existing operations as we strive to build a premier regional fully integrated solid waste management company, primarily focusing on secondary markets,” commented Philip Strauss, WSI’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “The Company has also identified additional acquisitions in the Western/Central Massachusetts markets and expects to close on those opportunities in the near future,” Strauss added.
WSI is an innovative solid waste management company. The Company operates fully integrated solid waste management operations in Central Pennsylvania and Vermont, and is building a fully integrated solid waste management operation in Western/Central Massachusetts and upstate New York. The Company is also evaluating other acquisitions and opportunities primarily in Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern markets.Certain matters discussed in this press release, including statements with regard to acquisition and growth plans, and prospects, are “forward-looking statements” intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and subject to risks. Such statements should be viewed with caution. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are the Company’s ability to manage growth, a history of losses, the ability to identify, acquire and integrate acquisition targets, dependence on management, the uncertain ability to finance the Company’s growth, limitations on landfill permitting and expansion, geographic concentration, and the other risk factors detailed from time to time in the Company’s periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company makes no commitment to disclose any revisions to forward-looking statements, or any facts, events or circumstances after the date hereof that may bear upon forward-looking statements.
Arrow Automotive Industries Announces First Quarter Results, Fiscal 1998
FRAMINGHAM, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nov. 5, 1997–Arrow Automotive Industries Inc. (ASE:AI) announced fiscal 1998 first quarter profits with net income of $117,000 on sales of $24,341,000, compared to a net loss of $584,000 on sales of $24,481,000 for the comparable quarter in fiscal year 1997. The operating results for the first quarter of the prior fiscal year included a pre-tax charge of $1,200,000 related to the company’s closing of its California production facility and transferring of the manufacturing operations formerly conducted at that plant to its remaining manufacturing facilities.
Arrow’s president, Jim L. Osment, stated that “the results of operations for the first quarter were in line with the company’s financial forecast.”
Arrow, with headquarters in Framingham, Mass., is one of the nation’s largest remanufacturers of precision replacement parts for domestic and import passenger cars, light and heavy trucks, farm vehicles and off-road industrial and construction equipment. Arrow operates remanufacturing and distribution facilities in South Carolina and Arkansas, as well as distribution warehouses in Canada.
Arrow’s shares are traded on the American Stock Exchange (Symbol: AI). -0- ARROW AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRIES INC.
CONDENSED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(IN THOUSANDS EXCEPT PER SHARE DATA)
(Unaudited)
THREE MONTHS ENDED
September 27, September 28,
1997 1996
NET SALES $24,341 $24,481
Income Before Restructuring
Charge and Taxes 117 258
Restructuring Charge (1) 0 (1,200)
Income (Loss) Before Taxes 117 (942)
Provision (Benefit) For Income
Taxes 0 (358)
NET INCOME (LOSS) $117 ($584)
NET INCOME (LOSS) PER SHARE $0.04 ($0.20)
Average Number of Shares
Outstanding 2,873,083 2,873,083
(1) Represents restructuring costs to close the company’s
California production facility and transfer its manufacturing
operations to the company’s remaining facilities.
Fitchburg assets sold; Beloit to operate mill
Beloit Corp. will operate the now-shuttered Fitchburg, Mass., air-dried 440 tpd market deinked pulp (MDIP) mill when it reopens at an as yet unspecified date, producing a still-to-be-determined product.The assets of the facility were sold to the newly formed Massachusetts Paper Co. in early November following an August bankruptcy filing. The mill shut down in September 1996-following a January 1996 startup-amid operational and financial disputes between turnkey contractor Beloit and parent International Recycling Corp. (an entity of Intercontinental Energy Group). At the time, the mill was known as Northeast Recycling Assn. Corp. or Massachusetts Recycling Assn. Corp
The Fitchberg property was transferred subject to existing liabilities, with Beloit reportedly relinquishing its claims for operations and maintenance fees; no cash was paid into Massachusetts Recycling, according to a source. Beloit was expected to take over operations in November 1997. Beloit senior counsel Jack Fishman, listing a wide range of possible pulp and paper industry products, said there has been no decision yet; he did say the latest discussions have focused on tissue and some MDIP Fishman said Beloit will start staffing the facility soon, but he did not know when a decision would be made regarding the startup.
Domtar Inc.’s proposed 772 tpd recycled bleached corrugated (RBC) pulp project in Everett, Wash., should be considered canceled, since the likelihood of its reaching fruition is now “one chance out of 10 or 20,” said a company executive. Domtar has been evaluating the proposal for some time.An MDIP-proposed project at the same site-Snohomish River Pulp Co., which would have involved some common infrastructure with Domtarwas shelved in 1997.
Nor’Easters of VR-62, The
Originally called the Motowners VR-62 was establsihed in 1985 at NAF Detroit, Michigan flying C-9B Skytrain IIs in support of Commander, Fleet Logistics Support Wing. The Motowners became the “Mass Tansport” nine years later upon their transfer to NAS South Weyouth, Massachusetts where they transitioned to C-130T Hercules transports, the aircraft they currently fly. VR-62 detachments were subsequently sent to Sigonella, Sicily and Atsugi, Japan.
Due to BRAC, South Weymouth was closed and VR-62 moved to is current home, NAS Brunswick, becoming the Nor’Easters in 1996. The squadron continues to support worldwide Naval operations. As LCDR James Corey of the squadron puts it, “VR-62 is a Naval Air Reserve squadron but we operate 365 days a year vice being weekend warriors.”
VR-62 has transported more than 12,000 passengers and over 11.6 million pounds of cargo since receiving the C-130Ts.
Among many Nor’Easter accolades are four Noel Davis Battle Es, two James M. Holcombe Maintenance Excellence Awards, two CNO Safety Ss, two Fleet Logistics Support Wing Training Excellence Awards and two ADM Phil Smith Operational Excellence Awards.
Commanding the Nor’Easters is CDR Robert R. Smith. His XO is CDR Christopher S. Chambers. The OiC is CDR Mark W. Samuels. The prospective XO (in May 2004) is CDR Mark O. Howell.
Beijing seeks investors in growing metro
METRO projects in the Chinese capital, Beijing, are leading a reform programme for franchising and investing in infrastructure construction. An historic step was taken in December 2004 when the Municipal Construction Committee announced the offer to non-governmental investors of a 30-year operating franchise for Line 4.Public bidding for lines 5 and 10 got underway last month. The government will transfer the right to manage these lines to the winners for a 20-year operating concession as soon as they are completed in 2007 and 2008 respectively. Total investment for lines 4, 5, and 10 is about $US 4.8 billion.
Two joint ventures are bidding for the Line 4 concession–Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway Corporation with Beijing Infrastructure Investment, and Beijing Capital Group; and Siemens with China Railway Construction Corporation and Beijing Metro Corporation. The winner will also have to pay about Yuan 5 billion ($US 604.1 million), which represents about one-third of the construction costs for the line.
Mr Wang Qi, general manager of the Beijing Municipal Infrastructure Investment Company, added that the municipal government was considering extending the franchise concept to other new lines in the future. The city plans a 350km metro network by 2015.
Heated Fluid-Control Valve delivers precise flow rate
Featuring No-Drip[R] design, Model 2200-396-026 opens and closes its carbide needle and seat to start and stop material flow up to 5,000 psi. Its 60:1 air-to-fluid power ratio provides instantaneous on-off control. Double-air-operated through 1/4 in. NPT ports to ensure positive start and stop of flow, valve features 1/2 in. NPT fluid inlet and outlet ports for transfer, delivery, and dispensing of low- to high-viscosity, heated adhesives, sealants, and lubricants.PLYMOUTH, MI–Sealant Equipment & Engineering, Inc.’s new Model 2200-396-026 heated fluid-control valve is designed for precision control of low- to high-viscosity materials. It is used in a wide variety of applications for the transfer, delivery and dispensing of heated adhesives, sealants and lubricants The heated flow-control valve is typically used to start and stop the flow of material on the outlet of supply pumps, on the inlet and outlet of pipe manifolds and headers, on the inlet and outlet ports of metering assemblies and on the inlet of dispense hoses. It is also used as a high-flow dispense valve.
The unique No-Drip[R] high-flow valve design is ideal for controlling the flow of heated adhesives and sealants such as acrylics, epoxies, polyurethanes, silicones, lubricants and warm-melt materials requiring elevated temperatures. The valve opens and closes its carbide needle and seat to precisely start and stop material flow up to 5000 psi. The 60:1 air-to-fluid power ratio provides instantaneous on-off control of material flow. The heated flow-control valve is double-air-operated through 1/4″-NPT ports to ensure positive start and stop of material flow. The valve has 1/2″-NPT fluid inlet and outlet ports for high-volume flow of viscous materials. The valve includes two holes for easy mounting.
More information about fluid-control valves is available via a direct Web site link at http://www.sealantequipment.com/catalog/valves-page9.htm
Sealant Equipment, a leading manufacturer of precision meter-mix dispense systems and fluid-dispense valves, is registered to ISO 9001:2000. The company designs, manufactures and integrates precision-engineered systems and equipment to supply, proportion, control, meter, mix and dispense a wide variety of one-, two- and three-component adhesives, sealants, lubricants and other materials.
Visit www.sealantequipment.com or contact Sealant Equipment & Engineering, Plymouth, MI 48170; phone (734) 459-8600; fax (734) 459-8686; E-mail valves@sealantequipment.com.
Transport Phenomena and Unit Operations: A Combined Approach
TRANSPORT PHENOMENA AND UNIT OPERATIONS: A Combined Approach
R. G. Griskey, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY, 448 pp., $99-95,2002
The idea of integrating transport phenomena and unit operations is a laudable one, inasmuch as these subjects are not mutually exclusive, as is too often assumed, but are indeed continuous and complimentary. This book addresses a broad range of topics within the general areas of fluid mechanics, heat transfer, mass transfer, staged operations and mechanical separations. It is aimed at the uninitiated student, and includes an impressive array of problems at the end of each of the fourteen chapters, as well as a large number of worked examples. However, the expectation that one book of moderate length can do adequate justice to such a broad range of topics is a bit overoptimistic. Due to the extensive breadth of coverage, the depth is quite limited, to the extent that developments, derivations and explanations of the origin and significance of many of the relations presented tend to be cursory or superficial and even, in some cases, misleading. There are also a number of errors or misprints that, hopefully, will be corrected in subsequent printings. The “transport” components of the book (i.e., transport coefficients and the microscopic conservation equations for molecular transport) comprise a relatively small part of the book, which is probably in suitable proportion to the fraction of practical systems amenable to analysis by these methods. The vast majority of the book is devoted to more-or-lessclassical unit-operations subjects. These include: incompressible flow in conduits; packed beds; mixing; conduction, convection, boiling, condensing and radiation heat transfer; heat exchangers; diffusion and convective mass transfer; equilibrium staged operations, including binary distillation (with a brief discussion of multicomponent distillation), packed absorption and extraction columns and leaching; filtration; centrifugation; sedimentation; and cyclone separations.
The material is mostly classic and the methods simplified based on graphical or empirical tools. Some of the material is current, but some is also outdated, with better or more accurate methods being available. For the beginning student or the non-chemical engineer, this book does provide a good introduction to a wide range of chemical engineering related topics, but should not be construed as the most complete or current treatment of the subjects covered.
Ron Darby, PhD, PE
Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering
Texas A&M Univ.
College Station, TX
Steam and condensate system rebuilds improve dryer control
Donohue mill improves steam and condensate systems, including stationary siphons and turbulence bars
WHEN PAPER MACHINE DRYER SECTIONS are designed for the best steam energy transfer to the sheet and efficient condensate removal, they are virtually set-and-forget operations. However, when they are reaching the limits of heat transfer or condensate removal capability, they can be difficult to control and can create many headaches for papermakers.
The Donohue newsprint mill in Thorold, Ont., faced such problems as the dryer sections on its No. 6 and No. 7 machines were limiting production and creating many operational difficulties.The 300 in. trim twin-wire Beloit machines, installed in 1981 and 1982, produce newsprint with basis weights from 45 gsm to 48.8 gsm (27.7 to 30 Ibs/3,000 ft). LIMITED CONTROL RANGE. Frank van Biesen, project manager at the Thorold mill, describes the situation before the steam and condensate systems underwent rebuilds in 1995 and 1996:
“Dryer pressures of 400 Kpa (58 psi) were just about at the maximum. On each machine, the existing thermocompressor was running wide open-out of control range-and we lacked the flexibility to control each dryer section individually. Operators found it difficult to change differential setpoints without dumping steam. To run the lighter weight grades (45 gsm) the operators had to shut down some dryers.’ The dryer sections were anything but set-and-forgetThe original steam and condensate systems for the 39 dryer sections on each machine were designed with single dry-end thermocompressor sections, which cascaded to the wet-end sections.A baby dryer was followed by three top uni-run dryers, which were individually pressure controlled.The bottom dryers of the two uni-run sections were not steam-heated, as the sheet is not in contact with the dryer surface. Both machines were equipped with dual rotating siphons up to dryer No. 23, with single rotating siphons in the remaining 16 dryers.
In addition to the lack of precise control, van Biesen reports the dryers were prone to frequent flooding, especially after repeated breaks. With the flooding problems and limited drying capacity, the mill looked for solutions to improve heat transfer to the sheet and to effectively remove condensate under all operating conditions, thereby improving machine efficiency.
PERFORMANCE STUDY, NEW SYSTEM DESIGN. To engineer an integrated solution to these problems, the mill chose Valmet-Enerdry of Thunder Bay, Ont. Valmet-Enerdry had previously conducted a dryer performance study from which it developed a longterm plan for improvements to the dryer sections. Based on this plan, the mill installed runability equipment such as blow boxes.
The study concluded that dryer surface temperatures were low for the steam pressure applied. The steam heat transfer to the dryer shell was limiting the drying rate. Also, the existing system design contributed to unreliable condensate removal, steam waste, and loss of production.
To achieve the desired goals of a steam and condensate rebuild, all components of the system-thermocompressors, steam separators, valves, siphons, turbulence bars-must be sized and their interdependent characteristics must be evaluated so that they work hand-in-hand. Valmet-Enerdry provided this detailed design engineering for the system. The new design incorporated a Valmet steam and condensate system for each machine, with stationary siphons and turbulence bars from the Deublin Co. of Waukegan, Ill. With machine speeds approaching 4,000 fpm, the condensate layer is certainly in a rimming condition. The Deublin turbulence bars, which were installed on all dryers except the non-heated uni-run dryers, disrupt the laminar condensate layer. This induced turbulence improves heat transfer to the shell.
To support the system design objectives of improved condensate removal, the mill selected Model FS100 Deublin DeltaSint stationary siphons. With stationary siphons, condensate is effectively evacuated at low differential pressures since the pressure difference does not have to overcome the centrifugal force introduced by high-speed rotation. Consistent with the original design of each machine, steam is supplied from the drive side, with condensate removed from the tending side.
The Deublin stationary siphons are relatively new to North American mills, but they are prevalent in Europe and Asia. To evaluate their performance, mill personnel visited sites in Finland, where the siphons are installed on similar machines.
To ensure reliability, the siphons have been designed to avoid metal-to-metal contact with the dryer shell. The siphon pickup shoe is designed so that it “water skis” on the condensate layer. Life of the carbon seals in the siphon joint is extended by an end-face balanced design, which ensures low loading on the face of the seal.An inspection gap is incorporated in the design so that seal wear can be visibly monitored by maintenance staff. Replacement can be planned systematically.
Evaluating Dryers for New Services
This simple, reliable approach to rate dryers for continuous service combines simulation with the specific drying rate approach.
Drying is a complex operation that involves simultaneous mass and heat transfer to and from irregularly shaped particles (1). During this process, the paniculate matter undergoes primary transformation (e.g., loss of moisture upon exposure to heat) and secondary transformation (e.g., particle breakage, shrinkage, biochemical reaction and morphological change), the latter of which may alter the product’s bulk characteristics, quality and appearance, and cause problems in dryer performance.
For dryers with known mechanical features and operating parameters, “troubleshooting” means more than rinding and fixing a problem - it involves evaluating a dryer for “new process conditions.” The various troubleshooting guises include (2):
* How do we get this dryer, which has never worked properly, to perform as it should?
* Why does dryer performance deviate from the expected?
* What can be done to increase dryer capacity?
* How do we avoid problems during dryer scaleup?
* How do we evaluate a dryer for new services where operating parameters deviate from the design basis?
This article presents a straightforward, reliable procedure for rating continuous tray and plate dryers for new or unintended services. The continuous behavior of plate and tray dryers are predicted from tests that are carefully conducted in laboratory-scale, vendor-supplied batch simulators. Data are recorded on the drying behavior of solids inside the dryer, and are used in the specific drying rate (SDR) equation, which, in combination with other formulas, rates the dryer’s performance at the new feed conditions.
Continuous dryer configurations
Two types of continuous tray dryers are commercially available: the rotating-shelf tray dryer and the stationary-plate dryer with rotating conveyor arms (3). Both dryers are particularly useful when relatively long residence times are required to dry the product and when product containment is necessary. Both units are also relatively gentle in their tray-to-tray solids-conveying techniques. For moisture removal, tray dryers rely on convection heat transfer, while plate dryers use conduction heating (the plates are heated trays).
Krauss Maffei Corp. (Florence, KY; www.kraussmaffei.com) rolled out the plate dryer in the U.S. in late 1970, and is still the only company that manufactures a plate dryer. The tray dryer was introduced in the U.S. in 1930 by Wyssmont Corp. (Fort Lee, NJ; www.wyssmont.com), which marketed its product under the TurboTray brandname. This dryer’s widespread acceptance has made “TurboTray” nearly synonymous with continuous tray-drying technology. For this reason, the TurboTray dryer has also been selected for illustrative examples in this article. The general features of the Wyssmont’s TurboTray and Krauss Maffei’s plate dryer are compared in Table 1.
Krauss Maffei plate dryer. This indirectly heated dryer is vertically oriented and features horizontal plates, equipped with arms and plows that ease product transfer, mounted inside the housing. The plates are heated by hot water, steam or thermal oil to temperatures up to 320°C. Product enters through the top of the unit and is conveyed downward in a spiral fashion via a central-rotating shaft to which the plates are attached. Material movement is facilitated by the disc and doughnut arrangement of the plates (Figures 1 and 2). The even numbered plates have a larger diameter then the odd numbered plates. The entire operation is conducted under vacuum.
Wyssmont tray dryer. An external view of the Wyssmont TurboTray dryer is shown in Figure 3. This dryer consists of a stack of rotating annular shelves (or trays) at the center of which turbo-type fans revolve to circulate the air over the trays. Wet material enters through the roof, falling onto the top shelf as the shelf rotates beneath the feed opening (Figures 4 and 5). After the tray nearly completes one revolution, the material is swept by a stationary wiper through radial slots onto the shelf below, where it is spread into a pile of uniform thickness by a stationary leveler. This action is repeated on each shelf; material transfer occurs approximately once per revolution. Material is discharged from the last shelf through the bottom of the dryer.
Applications. It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the types of materials that can and cannot be dried in plate and tray dryers. Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook (3) describes tray-dryer performance data for several materials, including antioxidants, water-soluble polymers, antibiotics and petroleum coke. In addition, Perry’s presents plate-dryer performance data for three applications: plastic additives, pigments and foodstuff. Both dryers require free-flowing or friable feed. If the feed is doughy or sticky, the material may adhere to the tray, plate, plows or level arm, thereby impeding solids transportation and causing poor dryer performance. Lumpy material could bridge the slots in a tray dryer or lodge between the plows of a plate dryer. Pre-treatment of the feed is sometimes necessary to facilitate controlled solids transport inside the dryer.
Get smart about removing slag
More often than not, sootblowing is literally a shot in the dark. Clyde Bergemann’s solution to this problem: Control sootblowing operations intelligently, based on the outputs of real-time weight and heat-flux sensors and the calculations of a computer model.
Every coal plant operator knows that burning coal produces ash, which can melt into slag that can be difficult to remove. So difficult, in fact, that dynamite may be the only solution. Slag on boiler tubes has two undesirable effects. It always reduces the tubes’ heat-transfer capacity, and if it comes loose in big enough chunks and falls, it can damage or destroy tubes or structures below. In the first case, the consequences are reduced boiler efficiency and plant output and–potentially–catastrophic tube overheating. In the second, the result is typically a forced outage.
All coal-burning plants are susceptible to slagging, and different types of coal foster different kinds of slag formation. For example, the burning of low-sulfur Powder River Basin (PRB) coals produces ash whose low softening temperature can turn it to slag on hot convection-pass surfaces. At the other end of the spectrum is high-sulfur Eastern bituminous coal, whose high iron content significantly lowers the ash fusion temperature.
To clean their boilers, plants periodically sootblow their tubes and other heat-transfer surfaces with water, compressed air, or high-pressure steam. But determining the optimal cleaning frequency for each sootblower is nearly impossible in the absence of a real-time picture of how much slag exists, and where it is. For this reason, at many plants the operating frequency for each of the dozens of sootblowers is based on past positive results. But sootblowing too often is just as bad as sootblowing too infrequently. The former wastes money, labor, and steam, and the latter is just asking for trouble.
Two years ago, in the October 2003 issue of POWER, we reported that Atlanta-based Clyde Bergemann Inc. (CBI) had teamed up with Georgia Power Co. to fight slag at Plant Bowen. On that project, CBI installed real-time strain-gauge sensors on rods between the pendant heat exchange surfaces of the plant’s boiler to detect the increased weight of slag buildup. Since then, CBI has taken its “smart” sootblowing technology to a higher level, one that the company calls intelligent sootblowing (ISB). This article describes the results of a deployment of CBI’s new system–which features smart pressure and heat-flux sensors, smart water cannons and steam lances, and smart models and controls–at the coal-burning plant of an independent power producer in a midwestern U.S. state.
Slagbusters
Huiying Zhuang, a boiler process engineer at CBI, explains that the effectiveness of his company’s ISB line derives from several pieces of hardware and software working in concert. Figure 1 shows which pieces perform which functions, and where:
* SmartCannons (Figure 2) clean the entire furnace by spraying jets of water to the opposite or adjacent wall.
* SmartSensors (Figure 3) installed within the furnace’s waterwalls detect the local level of heat flux in real time. This information can be invaluable in determining where and when to sootblow, and which kind of sootblower to use.
* SmartGauges–strain gauges mounted on the support structure of the boiler’s pendants–quantify the extent of slag buildup.
* SmartLances–retractable sootblowers aimed at the superheater and reheater–use steam as their default cleaning agent. But they also can blend water with the steam when doing so would increase the lances’ effectiveness.
* The SmartModel constitutes the system’s “brain,” determining when and where cleaning is really needed.
* The SmartControls serve as a traffic cop, by taking information from the SmartModel and the sensors and gauges, and directing the operation of the cannons and lances.
Getting smart pays off
According to Zhuang, a plant can save big bucks by deploying an ISB system. He claims that an 800-MW unit might increase its profitability by one-third by boosting the efficiency of its boiler and reducing plant downtime. With such a dramatic gain in profits, a CBI system priced at $1.2 million might pay for itself in just six months, Zhuang said.
Zhuang went on to detail where those gains would be realized. Prefacing the following explanation with the remark that “fuel costs can represent 80% of a plant’s operating costs,” he said, “An ISB system can enable a plant to burn lower-quality, cheaper coal, saving millions of dollars annually.”
In addition, increased boiler efficiency produces additional financial gains. As Zhuang explained, “A cleaner furnace means greater radiant heat absorption and a reduction in furnace exit gas temperature [FEGT]. It also means a lower attemperator flow, which reduces the cost of water treatment and the consumption of sootblowing steam.” Because a boiler with clean heat-transfer surfaces runs more efficiently, installing an ISB system can even enable a plant to sell, rather than buy, NOx emissions credits. What’s more, such a plant’s selective catalytic reduction system wouldn’t have to work as hard, which would reduce its O&M costs.