During coal combustion and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions control operations, ash and other particulate materials are produced by Rawhide Energy Station Unit One that must be removed from the flue gas before being discharged at the plant stack. The Rawhide Operating Permit issued by the State of Colorado limits the particulate emission rate and requires greater than 99.9% of these particulates be removed using a baghouse control system.

The system consists of two baghouses where the particulate is filtered from the flue gas using 34-foot-long, 12-inch-diameter Teflon®-coated fiberglass bag filters. Each baghouse contains 3,276 bag filters separated into 12 compartments. The compartments are periodically cleaned by reversing the air flow through the bag filters and the collected particulate is then either reused in the SO2 emissions control process, used by other industries or disposed of in Rawhide’s on site monofill.