At regular intervals, the European Commission records the Best Available Techniques (BAT) on the market for reducing the emission of air pollutants from power stations and publishes them in its BAT Conclusions. The emission values or bandwidths contained in these reports must be observed by the plants in question by no later than four years following publication of the BAT Conclusions, in accordance with the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), which applies Europe-wide.
Implementation of the The Thirteenth Ordinance on the Federal Immission Control Act (Ordinance on Large Combustion Plants and Gas Turbine Plants, 13th BImSchV) is designed to transpose the EU regulations into national law. In the area of electricity generation, the Ordinance applies to all coal, gas and oil-powered thermal power stations in Germany.
As emission limits grow tighter, the Research and Development business area within RWE Power is dealing in depth with new, innovative technologies to reduce the emission of air pollutants from power station flue gases. By developing tailored technical solutions, the objective is to further minimise negative environmental influences caused by flue gases and reliably observe requirements under the law and approval legislation into the future.
The Niederaussem Innovation Centre has testing facilities designed especially for this purpose, where it develops innovative technologies for desulphurisation (SO2), dedusting, denitrogenation (NOx) and the reduction of mercury emissions (Hg) in particular, and tests them under operational conditions.
