Wahlco Looks for Domino Effect in Russia Utility Deal : Technology: The Santa Ana environmental systems company will provide pollution reduction equipment in demonstration effort with an eye on big sales.

Opening what it hopes will become a major market, Wahlco Environmental Systems Inc. said Tuesday that it will provide some of its pollution reduction equipment to a large Russian electrical utility.

The customer, which Wahlco would identify only as a large Russian utility in the Ural region, will pay for the test of a flue gas conditioning system for the boilers in a generating station. If the test is successful, the utility will buy one or more of the units.

The utility also plans to evaluate one of Wahlco’s nitrous oxide reduction systems and a continuous emissions monitoring system, Wahlco said.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. A flue gas conditioning system sells for between $500,000 and $1.5 million in the United States. Wahlco spokeswoman Anne L. Anderson said the Russian purchase is a relatively small transaction intended to demonstrate the abilities of the products. The utility, she said, will pay Wahlco in hard currency.

The sale could lead to larger orders later as the Wahlco works to develop Russian markets for its pollution-fighting products. Anderson estimated that more than 1,000 boilers operating in the nations that make up for the former Soviet Union could use Wahlco’s pollution reducers.

She said the utility that is buying the flue gas system burns coal much of the year but has to switch to natural gas during times of the year when there is an inversion layer--an atmospheric condition much like that that periodically leaves a blanket of pollution shrouding the Los Angeles Basin. The flue gas conditioning unit and other Wahlco products will allow the utility to burn more coal, she said.

The name of the utility is not being revealed for competitive reasons, Anderson said.

The flue gas system is expected to be installed by the end of summer. The company expressed confidence that the utility will place additional orders if the demonstration system proves successful.

Wahlco, based in Santa Ana, has customers in 62 countries. It derives more than half of its annual sales, which were $81.9 million for 1992, from international business.