Emission Solutions November 2011 Newsletter

AN INTERNET PUBLICATION OF KLAUS EQUIPMENT COMPANY - PITTSBURGH PENNSYLVANIA

NOVEMBER 2011 NEWSLETTER

IN THIS ISSUE

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION BLOG

MARCELLUS SHALE GAS CLEANER THAN COAL

JAY SAYS

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION BLOG

Dominick DalSanto is an author and environmental technologies expert

Air Pollution Control Technology or EPA Fines? You Decide.
One company's audacious defiance of EPA regulations has ended up costing them dearly. SA Recycling LLC of Anaheim, Calif., has agreed to settle a lawsuit from Los Angeles County for failure to install and operate a dust collection systems at its various facilities. The company has agreed to a $2.9 million settlement and to pay an additional $690,000 in fines and investigative expenses. The lawsuit alleges the company, which operates more than 50 junkyards and recycling smelters, used for processing scrape metals including lead, failed to replace the dust collection system at its Terminal Island, Calif., site after it was destroyed in a 2007 explosion. The plant then allegedly continued to operate the site without replacing the system.

Dust collection systems, an integral air pollution control method, are used to filter out harmful particles from the emissions of industrial sources. These compounds include particles from combustion, such as ash and soot, mercury and other volatile organic compounds.

The plant, in trying get by without installing dust collection system, apparently had hoped to avoid the capital costs associated with installing a new system, and then operated the systems. In the end, the plants have been fined well in excess of the system install costs, and, in addition, are being forced to install the dust collection equipment at sites in San Pedro, as well as Kern and Orange counties in California.

Recently, the EPA has tightened existing clean air regulations and standards, making air pollution control technology vital to ensuring compliance. The National Ambient Air Quality Standards and National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants regulations--among many others--were revised to include more stringent emissions limits for particulate matter (PM2.5 or particulates smaller than 2.5 microns) and other pollutants. The EPA also recently codified the long-awaited Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. These regulations require coal-burning operations, such as coal-fired power plants, to reduce mercury emissions to acceptable levels using the most efficient current technology, known as Maximum Achievable Control Technology. Dust collection technology is integral to meeting all of these standards. The funds collected from the settlement will be divided among several different organizations, including the California State Department of Toxic Substances Control, 11 marina operators, the University of California and Coalition for Safe Environment. Fabric dust collection systems work by forcing the dirty air through a set of filter bags that are housed within an enclosure, known as a baghouse, before releasing the air into the atmosphere. Periodically, the filters are cleaned, usually using a system of compressed air within the baghouse to blow off the excess dust buildup, known as filter cake, which is then dropped into a hopper to be either disposed of in landfills or used in other products, such as in cement production. With increasingly strict federal and state environmental regulations, companies around the country can learn from the mistakes in this example, and consider the potential pitfalls of reluctancting to invest in pollution control technology and its potential impact on their bottom line.

MARCELLUS SHALE GAS CLEANER THAN COAL

Saturday, August 20, 2011 By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Burning Marcellus Shale gas instead of coal to generate electricity could reduce emissions of climate change-producing greenhouse gases by 20 to 50 percent, a recent Carnegie Mellon University study concluded.

The study, published Aug. 5 in the peer-reviewed "Environmental Research Letters," also found that Marcellus Shale gas has only a marginally larger greenhouse gas footprint when compared with conventional natural gas production.

This was said to be largely due to emissions related to the transportation and treatment of millions of gallons of water used to hydraulically fracture the rock and release the gas.

"Shale gas is better than coal when it comes to electricity generation," said Paulina Jaramillo, an assistant research professor in CMU's Engineering and Public Policy Department and one of six authors of the study. "We looked at the life cycle of gas and coal emissions, and even though methane emissions from gas are higher than from coal, the combustion emissions from coal really overwhelm them."
The study's findings estimating the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of the two fossil fuels is different than a Cornell University study in April that said shale gas methane emissions are as harmful or more harmful than carbon dioxide emissions from coal combustion.

But the Cornell study uses different assumptions for drilling, fugitive gas emissions and power plant combustion efficiencies. It's also based on a 20-year global warming potential for greenhouse gas emissions instead of the CMU study's 100-year time frame.

Ms. Jaramillo said the shorter time frame of the Cornell study gives more weight to methane emissions, reducing the environmental advantage of gas as a fuel.

Carbon dioxide emissions can stay in the atmosphere 10 times as long as methane, but methane can have more of an effect in the short term.

The CMU study's wide range of emissions reductions from Marcellus -- between 20 and 50 percent -- was necessary, Ms. Jaramillo said, because of the uncertainty of how much gas each Marcellus well will produce during its lifetime. If per-well gas production is lower, that means higher amounts of emissions per unit of gas produced.

Methane emissions from Marcellus well development could be significantly reduced, the study said, if drilling companies captured the gas from completed wells instead of flaring or venting it.

And flaring is better than venting, because it reduces the amount of methane released directly into the atmosphere, Ms. Jaramillo said.

The natural gas drilling industry touted the CMU study, claiming it refuted the Cornell study findings.

Lou D'Amico, president and executive director of the Pennsylvania independent Oil and Gas Association, said in an email that the CMU study "documents the significant environmental advantage of Marcellus Shale gas over coal," adding that the Cornell study was "rife with inaccuracies."

But Deborah Nardone, Natural Gas Reform Campaign director for the Sierra Club, which provided partial funding for the CMU study, said the key points of the two studies compliment one another.

"The CMU study says we need to control fugitive emissions and that methane from natural gas production is a potent greenhouse gas that needs to be controlled," Ms. Nardone said. "Natural gas is not the panacea the industry claims it is. It has a role as we transition into renewable energy sources, but it still has problems."

The Sierra Club's national energy policy goal is to develop and use as little natural gas as possible, and it notes that while natural gas is cleaner than other fossil fuels, it isn't clean.

According to the CMU study, development and completion of a typical Marcellus Shale well results in methane emissions the equivalent of 5,500 tons of carbon dioxide.

Ms. Jaramillo said the comparisons of the Cornell and CMU findings are distracting from more important questions about water supply and quality, wastewater disposal and pipeline infrastructure construction.

"Those discussions are going to be more critical to Marcellus development," she said. "The study found Marcellus gas development is not as bad as coal and is not much different than conventional natural gas. So let's not base development decisions on greenhouse gas emissions."

First published on August 20, 2011 at 12:00 am
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11232/1168671-503-0.stm#ixzz1eLbvHrRL

Jay says
MARCELLUS GAS is changing the economic life and future of the people in the states of Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Life will never be the same “ENERGY is ABUNDANT” “Shale Gas Development is a Game-Changer of Huge Proportions”

Gov. Corbett: “It’s not just jobs. It’s national security. It’s national defense. It’s a future for our children, our grandchildren” Philadelphia Gas Works customers see an “annual savings of $594” thanks to Marcellus Shale development.

“We’re the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. This single-handedly can change the US economy”.

Best regards,
Jay Klaus
JKlaus@KlausEquipment.com
Klaus Equipment Company, Inc.
President