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Thermal Energy's Tim Angus. (Darren Brown, OBJ)

Thermal Energy International Inc. (TSX-V:TMG) is installing its nitrogen oxide-reducing equipment at a power plant in Guangdong, China, as part of its joint venture with a Chinese university.

The Ottawa-based company said it has shipped equipment to be installed at Guangzhou Yuanchun Cogeneration Co. for demonstration-scale testing of its THERMALONOx process, which reduces the emissions from coal-fired power plans and other industrial sources.

"This real-world application of the THERMALONOx technology is being conducted to provide us with data on determining the optimal mix of chemistry to remove NOx (nitrogen oxides) from the flue gas stream used under different loads, and most importantly, to validate the cost-effectiveness of the process as a commercial application," said Thermal's chief technology officer Rob Triebe in a statement.

The deal is borne out of Thermal's joint venture research and development program with the South China University of Technology, announced in June 2007, which is partially funded by the Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau.

The installation will clean up the 50-megawatt power plant's 1,000 cubic feet per minute flue gas stream, with Thermal's FLU-ACE waste heat recovery technology to be used as a scrubber to remove the byproducts of the NOx oxidation reaction.

Thermal had earlier said that without NOx reduction technology, China and other Asian countries could account for 22 million tons of NOx emissions annually by 2020, almost 75 per cent of total NOx emissions from coal-fired power plants worldwide.

The company said it expects to take two to three months to install the THERMALONOx injection and reaction equipment, with the experimentation and analysis of this testing phase anticipated to last several months.