Longannet Power Station's former engineering manager Eric Smith was hauled reluctantly into the limelight when ScottishPower was presented with Queen's Award for Enterprise

The award, in the Sustainable Development category, recognises pioneering work at the ScottishPower-owned station to reduce emissions by installing revolutionary £20 million "gas reburn" technology.

Eric was one of the leading players behind the project and was in charge of the horrendously complex task of managing the installation of the equipment on one of Longannet's four giant 600 megawatt turbo generating units.

And his boss, ScottishPower Executive Director Ken Vowles, made sure modest Eric had a share of the glory when Glasgow's Lord Provost Alex Mossan visited the company's HQ in Glasgow to present the award in his capacity as the Queen's Lord Lieutenant for the City.

Eric, now ScottishPower Business Integration Manager, said : "The technology we were installing had still to be proven on a station the size of Longannet, and we had a very tight timetable as we had to get the unit back on production as soon as possible. It was one of the most professionally rewarding tasks I have ever done".

He added that gas reburn, which works by replacing about 20 per cent of the coal used for generation with gas, has been successfully proved at the station since its introduction in 1996 and has allowed ScottishPower to increase coal-burn while complying with emission limits. The process, he said, is now being marketed world-wide as a breakthrough for controlling emissions, including of nitrogen oxides (NOx), a cause of acid rain.

ScottishPower has demonstrated that when gas reburn is used in conjunction with the station's special burners, emissions of NOx a by-product of coal-fired generation can be reduced by up to 80 per cent. In addition, emissions of sulphur dioxide, dust and ash are reduced by 20 per cent and carbon by up to 10 per cent.

Work to prove gas reburn technology began in the early 'nineties under a ScottishPower-led partnership of EU energy companies who wanted to determine whether the process could operate on a large coal-fired station such as the 2400 Megawatt Longannet, one of the biggest in Europe. Previously its only application had been on a small power station in Colorado.

Gas Reburn was the biggest research and development project into emission control carried out by a UK electricity generator in recent years and has involved the installation of a new 12 km gas supply pipeline through Fife and the installation of 350 tonnes of equipment including fans and grit arresters. The whole process has been automated to achieve the precise control required. A working model is centrepiece of Longannet's new visitors' centre.

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Gordon Laidlaw                                     0141 248 8200