Electrotechnology cleans up [pollution control measures

Abstract

In ever more ingenious ways, electrotechnologies are being used to detoxify substances from industrial and agricultural waste products and processes, and to clean up land, air, and water. Electric utilities have a particular interest in the new pollution busting technologies partly, of course, because they consume electricity and yet also can yield net energy savings. Just as important, the nature of this kind of expertise widens the range of services a utility can offer its customers. In this dawning era of deregulation and heightened competition, the provision of new services is a key way of gaining and cementing customer loyalty. By taking advantage of the novel electrotechnologies, electric utility customers can improve their product quality, decrease their production costs, and raise their productivity, besides reducing pollutants and energy consumption. If these technologies were to be widely deployed, in effect two million fewer metric tons of volatile organic compounds would be emitted each year in the USA alone, while a million tons of medical waste and 25 million tons of industrial hazardous waste would be rendered harmless.