American Electric Power Picks GE's ABMET Wastewater Bioreactor System for Selenium Reduction

GE announced that American Electric Power (AEP) is installing GE’s ABMET wastewater bioreactor system at the utility’s Mountaineer coal-fueled power plant in New Haven, W.Va.

In a release Jeff Connelly, vice president of engineered systems - water and process technologies for GE Power & Water said, “AEP’s deployment of our ABMet technology underscores the importance of partnerships between coal plant operators and service providers to develop and commercialize the latest cleaner energy and water technologies.”

“If coal is going to continue serving as a major energy source, it is essential for the industry to support the deployment of new technologies that can help to dramatically reduce its environmental footprint,” Connelly added.

According to officials GE’s proprietary biological treatment system leverages a special molasses-based product as a nutrient for microbes that reduce selenium that is found in water emissions from many coal-fired power plants.

The ABMet technology from GE makes use of special strains of common, non-pathogenic microbes that facilitate the conversion of soluble selenium into elemental selenium, which can be removed from the system during periodic backwashing.

The microbes, which are fed with the molasses-based nutrient, get seeded in a bed of activated carbon which is used as a growth medium for the microbes to create a biofilm. Wastewater with selenium passes through this bioreactor and a reduction reaction occurs. Only nutrient has to be added periodically otherwise the system will be self-sustaining on being established, explained company sources.

Selenium is primarily an element that is present in coal and which does not get consumed in the combustion process. It is found in a plant’s post-combustion waste streams often.

AEP will be installing GE’s system to allow its 1,300-megawatt Mountaineer generating station to keep selenium within limits in discharge water. The treatment facility is scheduled to be completed and become operational by the end of 2011.

GE sources revealed that AEP is the third U.S. utility to deploy GE’s wastewater treatment process. The installation is GE’s fifth in the coal-fired power industry and 10th overall. GE’s process is capable of removing other constituents like nitrates besides several other metals also. However AEP’s is using the system for selenium reduction at Mountaineer.

Recently, GE announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire privately held Lineage Power Holdings from The Gores Group to keep in step with the growth in mobile Internet, cloud computing and data centers and to meet demands for efficient, reliable DC power to expand network capacity.