A $6.4 million project at Ohio University’s Lausche Heating Plant is aimed at reducing both pollution and energy expenses. The project, which officials say may become an environmental model for similar heating plants around the world, could reduce the plant’s sulfur dioxide emissions by 85 percent and save the university almost $700,000 a year in energy costs.
Applying technology designed by researchers at Sorbent Technologies Corp. in Twinsburg, engineers will retrofit the heating plant with a system that will use natural materials to absorb and neutralize sulfur dioxide produced by burning high-sulfur Ohio coal.
Sorbent Technologies holds the patent on the technology, and is giving Ohio University a license to use it. When the 18-month construction period and one-year test phase are over, the university will own the improved facility.
A portion of the cost of the project is being covered by a $4.5 million grant from the Ohio Coal Development Office.
