The rooster crows and simultaneously, orange lights rapidly begin pulsating on display screens sending the observation men away from the crow toward the orange illuminations in the control room.

If it’s not a rooster, a train rolls through here, said Charlie Price, Physical Plant manager.

The crowing of the rooster and the computer-generated whistles of an approaching train are both sounds installed in the computer monitoring room on the first floor of the Physical Plant. Their function is to alert the control room operators of potential mechanical problems that arise in the belly of the University’s now-operational, 10-story steam generator.

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It is Price’s duty to oversee the operations of SIUC’s newest steam producer a circulating fluidized bed combustion boiler. The boiler can easily handle the pressures of heating and cooling the buildings of SIUC with its maximum capacity of 101,500 pounds of steam per hour. The steam provides hot and cold water, heat, and air conditioning.

As for its mammoth height, fluidized bed technology simply demands vertical area.

All fluidized bed units are high, Price declared. They are high.

Rising through metal shafts, grated floors and countless pounds of twisting steel pipes and conveyor belts, the fluidized bed unit began continuously operating and producing steam in July after a $34 million steam plant improvement.

The money also was used to rehabilitate two coal-fired stoker boilers and to install one gas-fired boiler. The three boilers are used as a backup steam supply when the University demands more steam production than the fluidized bed combustion can supply.

Fluidized bed technology was introduced in the United States about 15 years ago and is attractive to coal burning plants because of its highly efficient emission control.

The boiler generates no nitrous oxides, and sulfur dioxide production is minimized by the addition of limestone into the boiler. Combustion temperatures in the fluidized bed unit remain about 1500 degrees Fahrenheit, which is below the temperature where nitrous oxides form.

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Emission of sulfur dioxide, the primary waste produced by burning coal, is reduced by more than 90 percent through the addition of limestone. The limestone acts like a sponge, capturing the sulfur dioxide and containing it as a solid waste before it can escape into the atmosphere.

Sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides and carbon monoxide emissions are regulated under standards created by the Environmental Protection Agency. The fluidized bed combustor, along with SIUC’s three other boilers, is limited to the following yearly output poundage:1,844 pounds of sulfur dioxide per year

208.5 pounds of nitrous oxide per year

174.1 pounds of carbon monoxide per year.

A unit known as the continuous emissions management system keeps track of emissions. If any emission should escape through the stack at a rate higher than allowed by the law, an alert signal is triggered in the control room.

Karen Khonsari, environmental compliance engineer at the Center for Environmental Health and Safety, worked for the Department of Energy and the EPA prior to arriving at SIUC.

Khonsari reports to the Illinois EPA with emission data from the Physical Plant and is working to gain an operating permit for the fluidized bed combustor.

I have worked with federal agencies on the regulator side, and now I’m on the regulated side, Khonsari said.

The operation permit is expected to be issued by the EPA next week. Khonsari said the University is taking every precaution to comply with the law. In the past emissions were a source of trouble at SIUC.

Last year, a settlement between SIUC and the U.S. EPA resulted in SIUC being fined $150,000 because of high emission levels at the steam plant in 1994.

The plant now operates the fluidized bed unit under a construction permit. Three stack tests were performed as part of the application for an operation permit. A stack test, which costs between $20,000 and $25,000, consists of a third-party monitoring of plant emissions.

The addition of the fluidized bed technology allows SIUC to burn high-sulfur Illinois coal, in a competitive market full of less expensive, low-sulfur Western coal.

Emission reduction in the fluidized bed unit makes Illinois coal more attractive, Price said.

Absolutely, [the fluidized bed combustor] was designed for the Illinois coal, Price said.

Another advantage of the fluidized bed combustor is the addition of a steam turbine congeneration unit. The unit will be powered by the fluidized bed combustor and will provide roughly 20 percent of SIUC’s electricity needs. Conservative estimates figure electricity savings will be about $450,000 per year.

The 14-month project, which began in August 1995, has proven to be a valuable asset in steam production and to the Illinois coal community through efficient technology.