EU: cleanest sea waters. Champions: Holland and Greece. Very good.

[Ecthy]

thank you, I'm just about able to make up such an equation myself

they fixed that plant, though, it's now one of the most modern power plants in the world...

[Az]

There is little to fix in such a situation. Just change your fuel to one that has less sulfur in it.

[Ecthy]

bull****! these are brown coal plants. they use complicated REAs to "desulfurize" (?) the output gas. they make gypsum/plaster/cement of it

2 H2O + SO2 + O2 + Ca --> CaSO4 * 2 H2O

as the overall equation, don't ask me for single steps.

and the reason we use brown coal (how backwards I hear you say) is subsidies and protectionism. this region lives from open brown coal mining and producing energy. we were one of the GDR's centre for energy, but stuff like that has no future in the west.

[Az]

What's the quality of the desulfurization process, percentage-wise?

[Ecthy]

I wouldn't know, but as far as I remember it's quite efficient. As in 90+% or so, can't say for sure.

[Az]

that's weird. The process must be mindbogglingly complicated, so that the filter would be ****ing expensive. Otherwise, noone would give a rat's ass about the amount of sulfur in coal. (actually, the companies never did, it's the government regulation that followed public outcry that forced them )

[Ecthy]

ecos are relatively strong in Germany, also without the greens in government.

environmentalism is almost a political consent here. not in companies though.

[Az]

Just read about those filters. seems like interesting stuff.

I had another process boiling in my head, but this could work, too.

[Ecthy]

what did you have in mind?

[Az]

pass it through a wet filter, and then neutralize the solution with some base. But this is great, as it seems that the CaSO4 is a useful compound. ( never knew it. )

if there are other useful sulfidic compunds, there is money to be made here.

[Ecthy]

they sell it, it's quite common in this region

I just wonder how the filtering is achieved exactly... maybe it's not a literal filter but the soke is just put through some solution, so it might basically be quite similar to your idea.

[Az]

Obviously, it's not a literal filter, since single molecules won't be cought by a filter. ( even if it will be a good filter, they'd just bounce off. ).

Yep, probably a sprinkler system or in reverse (gas released into water)

[Ecthy]

Should I put some 1933 quotes into my signature, too?

[Az]

[Solly]

Too much environment legislation...
Too much labour legislation...

Communists.