Company Expects Activated Carbon Demand to Increase
ADA-ES, Inc. of Littleton, Colo., continues to make progress on its plans to build new activated carbon production facilities to meet what it expects could be increased market demand as a result of a ruling handed down Feb. 8, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
The court ruled that EPA erred in its process that resulted in the relatively lenient Clean Air Mercury Rule. Although the court's ruling invalidates the rule and remands the matter to EPA for further proceedings, several observers believe that the ruling is likely to result in stricter mercury control rules.
According to President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Durham, Ph.D., "We have been pursuing an aggressive strategy to ensure that we will be able to supply the activated carbon needs of our coal-fired power customers. Despite regulatory uncertainty, we have taken steps and invested capital prior to the adoption of final, binding federal regulations, in order to be in position to respond to the market that we believe will result from more stringent limits on mercury emissions."
The company previously announced plans for building a new large-scale activated carbon production facility, with the first of six production lines expected to be operational in early 2010. The demand for the output from the first production line is based on expected needs from plants that are required to meet current state mercury control regulations and consent decrees.
ADA has engaged a company to perform the preliminary work needed to build the plant, which, if completed, will be the largest activated carbon plant built to date.