Cutting-edge Turk Plant uses less coal and water, reduces emissions

THE FIRST-EVER commercially-deployed, ultra-supercritical power generation unit in the United States is under construction in southwest Arkansas — and Boilermakers are playing a leading role in the project.

The $2.1 billion, 600-MW J. W. Turk Jr. Plant will feature the latest environmental controls, according to majority owner Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO), an American Electric Power (AEP) operating company.

LAST SEPTEMBER, AMERICAN Electric Power’s (AEP’s) Mountaineer power plant in New Haven, W.Va., began doing something no other plant in the world has ever done. It began capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from a slipstream of exhaust flue gas and pumping it deep underground below the plant for permanent storage in a saline formation. The validation project required retrofitting an advanced chilled ammonia system to the existing coal-fired plant — work performed by members of Local 667 (Charleston, W.Va.) and other building trades.