After demolition is completed, a courtyard area filled with benches and greenery will replace the ‘Old Scrubber’ that became extensively corroded more than a decade ago. 

Gary Reed, the director of the Facilities Planning and Management Office, said the sulfur dioxide scrubber system was built in 1986, about two years after Illinois decided to re-commission coal-fired facilities at higher education institutions.

At the time, Eastern had switched to burning natural gas since 1969, but because of volatile natural-gas prices, reverting back to coal seemed like a viable economic decision, Reed said. 

However, Illinois-coal flue gas, which is the fumes from burning coal, contained an immense amount of sulfur emissions that could mix with the atmosphere to create acid rain. 

The purpose of the “Old Scrubber” was to scrub the flue gas and neutralize the sulfur emissions before they reached the atmosphere, he said. 

“Off and on for the next 10 years, we ran the scrubber system with limited success, but it was a high maintenance item that was corrosive and labor-intensive,” Reed said. “Finally around 2000, the thing just ate itself up from the inside.”

Eastern then decided to bid out low-sulfur coal from Indiana that would burn cleaner than Illinois coal. This lasted until December 2010.

“That was the last chunk of coal I think this campus will ever burn,” Reed said. 

The university now uses biomass energy from the Renewable Energy Center, which opened on Oct. 7, 2011. 

Chad Weber, the project manager of the Facilities, Planning and Management Office, said the cost of the “Old Scrubber” demolition work was built into the $79 million project for the Renewable Energy Center. 

He said the demolition will be a six-to-eight week process and will be completed around the beginning of May. 

Before demolition began, they disconnected the electrical wire system that fed the scrubber and isolated the piping and water lines, Reed said. Then, they had to vacuum out residual materials from the scrubber system.

He said the majority of the metal scrap being torn down is recycled, and chunky bottom ash was given to county highway departments that mix the ash with rock salt for deicing.

They needed to demolish the scrubber system to accommodate for the Master Plan, Weber said. 

According to the Master Plan, the old coal plant will be repurposed into the new Student Services Building, and an addition to the building would be constructed where the scrubber system was.

“However, we don’t know how long before capital comes along for the new Student Services Building, so in the meantime we are going to develop it into an exterior lounge instead of a open eyesore,” Reed said. 

The courtyard area will have a sidewalk extension along with different plantings and benches. 

“We did not want to keep that space empty like someone who knocks a tooth out of your head and you’re smiling with a big blank in there,” Reed said. 

Rachel Rodgers can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].