In October I was in Ecuador, working on a pollution control project with Juan Carlos Blum, Jorge Duque, and Mario Patino, and my other colleagues and good friends at Efficacitas.

Efficacitas is the best (and most well known) environmental consulting company in Ecuador, and they provide a wide range of services addressing the environmental impacts of energy facilities, dams, airports, etc.

We’ve worked together on several projects in the past, including the development of environmental by-laws for the country (with some help from U.S. EPA’s Cristina Fernandez), supported by the Inter-American Development Bank; air quality work for Duke Energy; etc.

Power plant in Ecuador

This year we bid on and won a project to analyze pollution control options for a thermal power plant located in Esmeraldas, in northern Ecuador. My job was to help analyze the facility’s options for sulfur dioxide control, including wet and dry scrubber systems, sorbent injection technologies, and sea water washing.

Our final report was submitted in December, and we’re looking forward to helping the firm achieve environmental compliance.