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PPL has placed the second of two scrubbers at the Brunner Island power plant in York County, Pa., in service, completing a three-year, $800 million environmental improvement project.

“Scrubbers are among the most advanced pollution controls available for coal-fired plants, and they will remove almost all of the sulfur dioxide emissions from the Brunner Island plant,” said Dennis J. Murphy, PPL’s vice president and chief operating officer for PPL Generation’s Eastern Fossil and Hydro plants.

“PPL is an environmentally responsible company that has made major reductions in emissions from coal-fired power plants over the last 20 years, and is increasing generation from sources that do not emit greenhouse gases,” he said.

The scrubbers also will reduce mercury and other materials as a co-benefit, significantly improving the plant’s environmental performance.

“The scrubbers help ensure the long-term viability of the plant that generates more than 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year and provides more than 250 good-paying jobs for south central Pennsylvania,” Murphy said.

The $800 million investment at the Brunner Island plant includes the two scrubbers, which will handle emissions from all three generating units; replacement of two electrostatic precipitators to capture ash and fine particles; construction of a new water treatment facility for water used in the scrubber; and construction of equipment to store and handle limestone and synthetic gypsum for the scrubbers.

The scrubbers use a mixture of limestone and water in a chemical process that transforms sulfur dioxide from the plant’s exhaust into synthetic gypsum and water vapor. The synthetic gypsum is collected for use in manufacturing cement and wallboard. The water vapor is released through the plant’s new 600-foot-tall chimney stack.

“Since the start of construction in 2006, the project has provided hundreds of construction jobs,” said William E. Riebling, vice president of Engineering and Construction for PPL Generation. “We emphasized the importance of safety from Day One and as a result, in more than three years of construction on the project, workers completed more than 2.5 million hours without a lost-time accident at Brunner Island.”

About 30 permanent new jobs have been created at the Brunner Island plant to operate and maintain the scrubbers and related equipment.

The scrubbers and other environmental improvements at the Brunner Island plant — coupled with similar upgrades at PPL’s other coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania, located in Montour County — represent a combined $1.4 billion investment by PPL in environmental improvements, and the second-largest construction project in PPL history, trailing only the construction of the Susquehanna nuclear plant near Berwick, Pa.

The projects were successfully completed on time and within budget.

PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL), headquartered in Allentown, Pa., owns or controls nearly 12,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to about 4 million customers in Pennsylvania and the United Kingdom.