Co. installing fluid bed boiler to burn high-sulfur coal.

HENRY, Ill.--The B.F. Goodrich Co.'s chemical plant here broke ground last week on a new $21.3 million fluidized bed boiler that will burn high-sulfur Illinois coal and save the company an estimated $3 million in its first year of commercial operation.

The company "conservatively" estimates the payback at four years, with normal price increases of gas.

The project represents one of the few installations of a fluidized bed boiler mainly financed by the user. The company will provide about 80 percent of the funds, with the state supplying the rest, said Stanley Farbstein, director of energy affairs with Goodrich's chemical group corporate headquarters in Akron, Ohio.

The boiler was manufactured by Pyropower Corp., San Diego.

Farbstein added that the company has used conventional coal-fired …