ADA-ES provides proprietary products and technology that help power companies:
        » Burn the cheapest fuel (e.g., PRB coal)
        » Increase capacity/efficiency of existing plants
        » Decrease operating expenses
        » Decrease emissions
        » Increase sale of by-products

Our flue gas conditioning chemicals for cold and hot-side electrostatic precipitators enable these devices to operate more efficiently, collect more particulate emissions and operate longer between cleaning outages.

Our mercury control products include: optimization and testing services, activated carbon injection systems and activated carbon sorbents.

No, but a lot of our technology development efforts are geared to solve the problems our utility customers face when complying with new regulations.

Our flue gas conditioning chemicals were developed to help utilities switch to lower sulfur coals and continue to meet existing particulate regulations. Our mercury control products and services have been developed to meet the demands that new mercury regulations have created. And we have begun research and development on capturing CO₂ emissions, which we expect to be a regulated pollutant in the near future.

ADA-ES is committed to developing new technologies to expand its product line and meet the ever-changing needs of customers. The company has an excellent track record in partnering with government agencies to obtain their financial assistance to offset the high costs associated with product development. Under these arrangements, ADA-ES will own the rights to any technology resulting from government-funded R&D projects. The ADA-ES family of flue gas conditioning products is just one example of research and development that the company has completed that has been successfully converted to commercial application.

        » R&D revenues replace R&D expenses
        » Funding helps cover overhead expenses
        » ADA-ES owns any technology that is developed
        » Programs require working directly with power-generating customers
        » $2 billion will be available for clean coal technology over the next ten years

ADA-ES and its predecessor companies have successfully completed numerous projects with government R&D funds for nearly 25 years. During this time, we have been awarded over 50 contracts exceeding $40 million in value. Our success at taking an emissions reduction technology from concept to commercial full-scale systems, distinguishes ADA-ES from most other R&D contractors.

The EPA has publicly expressed growing health concerns over current levels and potential build-ups of methylmercury in lakes and rivers. The National Academy of Sciences reported in July 2000 that EPA's concern over the toxic effects of methylmercury was scientifically justified.

Exposure to high levels of methylmercury has been associated with serious neurological and developmental effects in humans. Depending on the dose, the effects can include subtle losses of sensory or cognitive ability, tremors, inability to walk, convulsions and death. Women of childbearing age are regarded as the population of greatest concern because the developing fetus may be the most sensitive to the effects of methylmercury.

Mercury is a naturally occurring metal in the Earth’s crust that moves through the environment as a result of both natural and human activities.

Mercury releases can be attributed to:
        » The burning of all fossil fuels
        » The processing of metal ores
        » Medical and municipal waste incinerators
        » Mercury switches in thermostats and cars
        » Volcanic eruptions
        » Improper disposal of fluorescent light bulbs

Over the past decade, the U.S. has made great strides in reducing the amount of mercury entering the environment. These efforts have focused on reducing the use of mercury in consumer products, recycling, and requiring mercury emission controls on the combustion of municipal and medical waste. As a result of reductions in these other areas, coal-fired electric generators now represent the largest single source of anthropogenic, or man-made, mercury emissions in the United States. According to the EPA, power plants in the U.S. release about 48 tons of mercury annually, and "emit roughly 13 to 26 percent of the total airborne emissions of mercury in the U.S. and are estimated to account for roughly 1 percent of total global emissions."

Several environmental groups and states sued the EPA in 2005 for drafting the CAMR without proper interpretation of the Clean Air Act. In February 2008, the CAMR was remanded by the US District Court of Appeals and sent back to the EPA to be re-written.

There is currently no federal mercury emission regulation while the EPA re-writes a new rule. There are 14 states that have enacted their own mercury regulations for power plants within their borders. Also, all new coal-fired power plants are required to have mercury control systems on them.

ADA-ES has been involved in research and development of mercury control technologies since the early 1990s . Our mercury emission control business reflects our overall approach to technology development, implementation and commercialization (i.e., rapidly taking technology to full-scale, and testing and improving it under actual power plant operating conditions). While some mercury control technologies were being developed in the isolation of a laboratory without feedback from users, ADA-ES was working on full-scale mercury control systems installed at plants operated by several of the largest power companies in North America, and was able to optimize the technology to meet specific needs. Many of the Company’s contracts over the years have been co-funded by the government and industry.

ADA-ES mercury control activities can be grouped into five areas:

1) DOE, EPRI and utility funded test programs
2) Mercury control demonstrations and optimization services
3) Risk management and strategic consulting services for control strategies
4) Activated carbon injection systems
5) Powdered activated carbon sorbents

The Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that mercury control could cost the utility industry as much as $2 to $5 billion per year.

We think we’re in a great position to be a leader in this industry because we not only have extensive experience working with mercury and pollution control technologies, but we’re also very commercially focused with a great track record of using government-funded research to create commercially viable products.

The expectation of success on this program is very high because mercury control technology shares a lot of similarities with our commercial flue gas conditioning business. The ADA-mercury emissions program will focus on control technology based upon injecting chemical sorbents into a power plant's flue gas to react with mercury (see Figure 1 below). These sorbents (solids and liquids) must then be collected in the plant's existing particulate control device. Spray cooling will be used as necessary to reduce flue gas temperatures in order to increase the effectiveness of the native fly ash and/or sorbents. With our FGC technology, we install equipment that injects proprietary chemical products into the flue gas that are subsequently captured along with the dust in the existing particulate control equipment. Thus we are familiar with all of the system components and operational issues that will be necessary for mercury emission control.

Yes, coal is used to produce approximately 50% of all electricity generated in the USA. Nuclear power accounts for approximately 21% and natural gas produces 21% of our electricity. Hydro electric dams create about 5% of our power and renewable sources account for 2 -3 %.

Coal has historically been the fuel of choice for electric generation in the USA. It is cheap and abundant and is mined in several areas of the eastern and western regions of the country. Natural gas has increased its share of electric generation in the past ten years, due to the fact that air permits for new gas plants have been easier to obtain than for new coal plants and the gas plants have been less expensive to build.

This increased demand for natural gas as a fuel for electric generation has had a dramatic effect on its price. The price of natural gas has risen much steeper than for coal and most utilities still consider coal as the best choice for large base-load power generation plants.

The electric power industry has made great improvements in reducing emissions from all of their power plants, especially the coal-fired ones. Electric generation has increased 173% since 1970 and coal use has more than tripled to over 1 billion tons per year. Despite this huge increase in coal usage, emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates have all decreased significantly since 1970, the year the Clean Air Act was passed.