However, due to the cost, most of the world's power plants do not significantly treat exhaust gases. Likewise, utilities often elect not to burn abundant fuels such as coal, which have a relatively high sulfur content, because of the expense of removing sulfur dioxide. The process relies on the team's invention, a new catalyst for which a patent is pending. We have tested it in the laboratory over a lifetime of 1080 hours and the catalytic activity is very stable. The yield of sulfur recovery over the course of our lifetime test was 96.5 percent.
Many countries including America and China have abundant coal reserves.
However, in America the cost of desulfurization has been a major obstacle to the use of coal. The method can convert 42 percent of the energy potential in coal into electricity, a seven percent improvement over the technologies now in common use. IGCC combines coal, water, and heat to produce a synthetic gas that consists of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and hydrogen sulfide. However, before this hot gas can be burned to produce electricity, the hydrogen sulfide must, in some way, be treated. One emerging approach to this pollution problem starts by concentrating the hydrogen sulfide gas through a multistep treatment process that results in additional capital investment and energy loss.