Ozone depletion due to air pollution has long been recognized as a threat to human health and the Earth’s ecosystems. The World Health Organization said that 2.4 million people die each year from causes directly attributable to air pollution. Countries across the world have long been conscious of the seriousness of the pollution and struggling to deal with the problem. Even before Korea became aware of the term “environment protection” in the 70s, KC-Cottrell saw the need for facilities to prevent air pollution and began producing gas treatment systems and electrostatic precipitators.
KC-Cottrell’s major product lines
Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP) is a widely used device that uses electrostatic attraction to collect dust and mist particles for air filtration. It is mainly used in areas that produce a large volume of dust, such as power plants, cement kilns, glass melting furnaces, steel manufacturing furnaces, incinerators and boilers, to effectively remove pollutants. ESP is effective in removing particles that are smaller than 10-20μm and more efficient than other equipment that removes dust and mist particles under 0.01μm. In fact, most of KC-Cottrell’s ESP showed efficient removal up to 99.9% and can operate continuously under various conditions of dust and mist output. Flue Gas De-sulfurization (FGD) is a system that removes sulfur dioxide from combustion of coal, oil, or fuel that contains sulfur. FGD reduces emission of sulfur dioxide during fuel combustion and prevents air pollution by converting SO2 into more manageable calcium sulfate.
KC-Cottrell was successful in overseas business expansion through the completion of environmental facility maintenance projects last year. This involved amendments (Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970) in electrostatic precipitators, desulfurization and reprocessing at Taiwan’s Hsinta Power Station (two 500MW generators). In late 2011, KC-Cottrell was awarded KRW 45.3 billion of orders to supply electrostatic precipitators, desulfurization and lime treatment facilities to Tupan valley thermal power plant in Turkey. Furthermore, the company received various orders to supply pollution control systems to power stations in Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, India and Kazakhstan.
“A few years ago, when we tried to sell precipitators to GE, it wasn’t easy to prove our technical skills. They did not easily believe in technologies of a small company like us. However, when we told them that we were selected as an excellent supplier several times by POSCO, a global steel company, and even as the best supplier in 2006, they were very impressed and we earned the contract in the end. I believe it is a result of having kept focused on technologies only,” said CEO of the company.
KC-Cottrell has been selected as the KOTRA Seal of Excellence since 2010.
