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The Northern Wood Power Project will eliminate thousands of tons of emissions from the environment each year. PSNH’s new wood-fired boiler utilizes a state-of-the-art fluidized-bed system, which is recognized as a low-emission advanced combustion technology. Fluidized-bed systems use a heated bed of sand-like material suspended (or “fluidized”) within a rising column of air. The scrubbing action of the bed material on the wood chips strips away the carbon dioxide and charred layers that normally form around the fuel. As a result, the rate and efficiency of the combustion process is vastly improved.
The fluidized-bed boiler technology, coupled with the inherent environmental advantages of wood, burns fuel more completely and substantially limits the production of nitrogen oxides and other airborne emissions. Compared to its coal-burning predecessor, the wood-burning boiler produces about 70 percent less nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, reduces mercury emissions by about 90 percent, and produces little particulate matter into the atmosphere. The new process virtually eliminates sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions — the major component in acid rain — reducing them by about 95 percent.
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