A lifecycle assessment of Novinda’s Amended Silicates HgX (AS-HgX), a non-carbon product for removing mercury from the flue gas of coal-fired power plants, shows the product’s greenhouse emissions were one-tenth of those associated with powdered activated carbon (PAC) products.

The company says this GHG performance delivers a potential reduction in CO2 emissions of 175,000 metric tons per year if just 10 percent of the market substitutes Novinda’s AS-HgX for PAC.

Designed to address and exceed the mercury removal rates of the EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), Novinda’s Amended Silicates products have delivered sustained performance in full-scale tests at more than 35 power plants. The company says AS-HgX has proven to be effective and cost competitive, removing mercury with two to three times the efficiency of the market’s standard mercury removal products.

In addition to its low GHG emissions during production, AS-HgX preserves the fly ash of coal-fired power plants for recycling to concrete manufacturers as a replacement for portland cement. This provides utilities with an economical and environmentally friendly option for fly ash disposal and results in a further reduction in GHG emissions in portland cement production, preventing an additional estimated 1 million metric tons per year of CO2 emissions.

The cement industry’s sustainability goals will drive growth in the greener fly ash cement market, causing it to double to $47 billion by 2018, according to an analysis published this week by Lux Research.