Shaw scrubs its way to $1.1B

The Shaw Group may have cleaned its way to the top of the emissions control industry with today's announcement of a $1.1 billion scrubber contract with Mirant.

"We are delighted to continue our strong relationship with Mirant and finalize this contract for Mirant's three Maryland coal-fired generating plants," said J.M. Bernhard Jr., chairman, president and CEO of Shaw.

Baton Rouge-based Shaw, one of the largest engineering and construction contractors for the power generation market, has been busy in emissions control this year.

Just last month, the company secured two scrubber contracts.

One was a $75 million contract for PSE&G's 600 megawatt Unit 2 near Jersey City, N.J.

The other one is for four 680 megawatt units at the Castle Peak Power Station in Hong Kong.

The value of that deal was not disclosed.

Shaw competes in the emissions reduction field with companies like the fast-growing Fuel Tech (see Driving profits by cleaning up coal).

Just last week, Fuel Tech (Nasdaq: FTEK) said it received multiple air pollution control contracts totaling $3.7 million (see Fuel Tech gets $3.7M in orders).

Shaw's contract with Atlanta-based Mirant finalizes an agreement that dates back to July 2006.

But last year's announcement that Shaw would clean up Mirant's Chalk Point, Morgantown and Dickerson power plants in Maryland was valued at $900 million.

Shaw said the increase in the contract will be reflected in its fourth quarter results.

The deal with Mirant covers the engineering, procurement and construction of the emissions controls systems.

The retrofit will include flue gas desulfurization units, which are designed to significantly reduce sulfur dioxide emissions.

In its original announcement last year, Shaw said its scrubbers are expected to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions by approximately 95 percent at the Chalk Point, Morgantown and Dickerson plants.

The company also said its selective catalytic reduction system would reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 92 percent at the Chalk Point Generating Station.

The retrofit should be complete by December 2009.

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