With respect to my own company, EPCOR, we try as best we can to anticipate the changes in regulation, not only provincially but also federally, that are coming down. That was really what forced us to pursue supercritical technology with respect to the third unit we built at Genesee, starting in 2002. It has been in operation for almost two years now, since 2005. We try to anticipate changing regulation with respect to all of those emissions I mentioned: NOx, SOx, particulates, mercury, and CO2.
On the CO2 front, with the supercritical technology, given that it's an 18% improvement in thermal efficiency, you're getting on an intensity basis a reduction of 18% in terms of CO2. So that's a major improvement with respect to that technology.
With respect to NOx, SOx, and particulates, we were able to take advantage of what we call “best available technology economically achievable”. It's a long phrase, I know, and we refer to it as BATEA. We were able to take advantage of that technology that's available, so we were able to introduce low-NOx burners, and they're working extremely well, way below the provincial standards. With respect to SO2, we were able to put in a flue gas desulphurization unit, bearing in mind that the coal in western Canada is very, very low in sulphur anyway. It's only 0.2% sulphur, whereas in eastern Canada and the eastern U.S. it's probably around 3%-plus. With respect to particulates, we're able to capture 99.8% of those.
We have been working over the past few years on mercury reduction with the province. As a result of that, there is now a new standard in place that by 2011 we have to capture 70% of mercury.
That has happened with respect to currently available technology. With respect to the future, then, we're focusing our attention, particularly, because of our coal, on coal gasification, because it demonstrates that it can reduce all those emissions that I mentioned down to even significantly lower levels: NOx, SOx, particulates, mercury, and CO2.