Vortecone scrubbers in the fall of 1998, followed by three other Toyota plants all
within three years: Takaoka, Tahara, and Indiana. As an additional benefit, the
maintenance cycle of three months required for the traditional type scrubbers was
extended to one year compared to the type B scrubber.
Based on this success, the University of Kentucky is studying the application of
Vortecone to capture fly ash and other combustion by-products from coal-fired power
plants. Currently, Kentucky coal-fired power plants use electrostatic precipitators to
recover fly ash particles from coal combustion gases. The installed cost of these
precipitators varies depending on the fraction of fly ash removed, as dictated by
environmental regulations when the plant was granted a permit. New green technology
that could either reduce the recovery cost, improve the percent recovered, or both, would
improve the market position of coal as a boiler fuel and also help Kentucky’s coal-fired
utilities update its facilities. This environmentally friendly new green technology for
coal-fired power plants, created as spin-off from a long term research collaboration
between Toyota and University of Kentucky, would help enable continued use of coal for
power generation in Kentucky and all over the United States.