Engineering Solutions for Wastewater Treatment

One of the most critical challenges facing our environment today is the way in which we manage wastewater. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), wastewater discharges from industrial and commercial sources may contain pollutants at levels that could affect the quality of receiving waters or interfere with publicly owned treatment works (POTWs).

With organizations adopting environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) standards, there comes an urgency to implement technology that will assist in achieving sustainable and efficient wastewater treatment, especially at large industrial sites. The ability to engineer solutions to mitigate these issues and protect local communities and environments is vital.

Through processes like wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD), we can use technology to remove sulfur dioxide from exhaust flue gases of fossil-fueled power plants and from the emissions of other sulfur oxide emitting processes such as waste incineration; however, this critical process to protecting our atmosphere creates a slurry waste stream that must then be addressed with other treatment processes.

Bringing FGD to life at BREC

Wood kicked off a first-of-its-kind project in late 2020, providing engineering and procurement services to relocate the Wet Flue Gas Desulfurization (WFGD) Absorber from the Big Rivers Electric Corporation (BREC) Coleman Generating Station to the BREC D.B. Wilson Generating Station.

Having recently been awarded the next phase of the project, the team is now enabling BREC to achieve the full potential of its environmental improvement project, by completing the Wet Flue Gas Desulfurization (WFGD) system with the addition of two new facilities.

The engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services scope will add a new gypsum dewatering facility to the site, treating and drying sulfur dioxide (SO₂) scrubber blowdown to mitigate release into the local atmosphere, allowing the plant to produce saleable gypsum and reduce unusable waste.

The new wastewater treatment facility will be capable of treating a waste stream of 150 gallons per minute (GPM). Concentrate from the wastewater treatment facility will be routed to a spray dryer, designed and supplied by Wood, that utilizes the boiler flue gas to evaporate the liquid waste as part of a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) system and diverts solid waste to a baghouse for collection. As a result, the project discharges no wastewater to the environment.

Approximately 150 people are employed under the contract for this conventional power project. 90 of these positions have been retained from prior work between BREC and Wood, and 60 are new roles created specifically for the project. Engineering design will be performed out of Wood’s regional office in Georgia, with construction performed at BREC’s site in Centertown, Kentucky.

The Power & Industrials EPC Americas team at Wood is proud to be the facilitator of this 35-year relationship with Big Rivers Electric Corporation. This project marks the completion of BREC’s Wet FGD plant at their D.B. Wilson station, a 417MW capacity powerplant, and represents Wood’s ability to engineer solutions that will ensure clients remain in compliance with environmental regulations and requirements, creating a sustainable path forward for industry.