Southern unit to market new-coal technology

A subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Co. will start selling the clean-coal technology being used to build a power plant in Mississippi to other utility companies.

Southern’s Mississippi Power is building a $2.8 billion power plant that will convert lignite coal to burnable gas. The project is expected to have fewer sulfur dioxide, particulate matter and mercury emissions compared with traditional coal-burning power plants, the utility says.

The plant’s trademarked technology, known as Transport Integrated Gasification, or TRIG, was developed by Southern Generation Technologies, a Southern subsidiary, and KBR, a Houston-based energy company. The TRIG technology will help build a more reliable and efficient power plant that uses less water and creates less emissions, the companies said.