Emission Solutions August 2011 Newsletter

AN INTERNET PUBLICATION OF KLAUS EQUIPMENT COMPANY - PITTSBURGH PENNSYLVANIA

AUGUST 2011 NEWSLETTER

IN THIS ISSUE

BOILERS RULE BY APRIL 2012

EPA LOOKS DOWN FROM ABOVELOOKS DOWN FROM ABOVELOOKS DOWN FROM ABOVE

EPA FINALIZES GHG CONFIDENTIALITY DETERMINATIONS

JAY SAYS

BOILER RULE BY APRIL 2012

by Seth Fisher
June 24, 2011
The EPA has released its timeline for issuing a final rule on boilers and solid waste incinerators. The agency said it now expects to have a revised proposal by the end of October 2011 and issue final standards by the end of April 2012. The agency was under court order to have a new boiler rule by earlier this year, but the standard proposed in April of last year proved controversial, receiving more than 4,800 comments from businesses and communities, including a significant amount of information that industry had not provided prior to the proposals.

Based on this input, the agency made extensive revisions that resulted in dramatic cuts in the cost of implementation, basically rewriting the standard. Complaints included the type of materials that can be safely incinerated, and the general wisdom of setting such a stringent standard using what many consultants consider outdated modeling. The agency is finalizing which non-hazardous secondary materials would be considered solid waste and which would be considered fuel. This distinction would determine whether a material can be burned in a boiler or whether it must be burned in an incinerator.

There are about 13,800 boilers located at major sources of air pollutants and about 187,000 boilers located at area sources of air pollutants located at commercial and industrial facilities.

In May 2011, the EPA announced it would stay the effective date of those standards. The agency did not stay the effective date of the standards for boilers located at area sources of air toxic emissions.

Source: EPA Press Release

http://www.pollutionengineering.com/Articles/Industry_News/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000001068380

EPA LOOKS DOWN FROM ABOVE

June 23, 2011

The NASA DISCOVER-AQ aircraft.

This summer two NASA research airplanes will fly over the Baltimore/Washington region and northeast Maryland as part of a mission to enhance the capability of satellites to measure ground-level air quality from space. The flights will be supported by the EPA and will aid the agency in monitoring pollutants that affect people's health.

"With improved ability to monitor pollution from satellites, scientists can make better air quality forecasts, and more accurately determine sources of air pollutants. This information is useful in developing strategies to protect our nation's air quality," said Dr. Paul Anastas, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Research and Development.

The flight measurements will be taken in concert with satellite and ground measurements. EPA scientists will use ground-based instruments to measure oxides of nitrogen and ozone along portions of the flight path. Data from the project is expected to provide a greater understanding of how the existing ground-based air-monitoring network funded by the EPA and run by states and local agencies can be used to improve satellite observations.

A fundamental challenge for space-borne instruments monitoring air quality is to distinguish between pollution high in the atmosphere and that near the surface where people live and breathe. The new field project will make measurements from aircraft in combination with ground-based observations to help scientists better understand how to observe ground-level pollution from space in the future.

The project is called DISCOVER-AQ, which stands for Deriving Information on Surface conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality. It is one of five Earth Venture investigations selected in 2010 as part of NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder program. These targeted science investigations complement NASA's larger research missions.

"What we're trying to do with DISCOVER-AQ is to fill the knowledge gap that limits our ability to monitor air pollution with satellites," said James Crawford, the mission's principal investigator based at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

Since many countries, including the United States, have large gaps in ground-based networks of air pollution monitors, experts look toward satellites to provide a more complete geographic perspective on the distribution of pollutants.

NASA's A-Train constellation of satellites, including Aqua and Aura, will pass over the DISCOVER-AQ study area each day in the early afternoon. This data will give scientists the opportunity to compare the view from space with that from the ground and aircraft.

"Although we are better at detecting some pollutants from space than others, broadly speaking we have difficulty distinguishing between pollutants high in the atmosphere, which we can see quite well with satellites, and pollutants at the surface," said Kenneth Pickering, DISCOVER-AQ's project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Test flights begin as early as June 27 followed by up to 14 flights during July using two NASA planes. Sampling will focus on an area extending from Beltsville, Md., to the northeastern corner of the state in a pattern that follows major roadway traffic corridors. The flight path passes over six ground measurement sites operated by the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Ground sites maintained by the Maryland Department of the Environment form the backbone of the surface network. These sites will be supplemented by additional instrumentation provided by NASA, EPA, Howard University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, and Millersville University in Pennsylvania. In the air, NASA investigators will be joined by colleagues from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the University of California-Berkeley, and the University of Innsbruck in Austria.

The combined scientific resources are what make DISCOVER-AQ a rare opportunity for air quality researchers. "It's not just one instrument that's more important than another. It is the combination of all of them that makes this campaign valuable," said Jennifer Hains, a research statistician with the Maryland Department of the Environment in Baltimore.

http://www.pollutionengineering.com/Articles/Industry_News/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000001068191

EPA FINALIZES GHG CONFIDENTIALITY DETERMINATIONS

May 26, 2011

The EPA finalized the confidentiality determinations for certain data elements that are required to be reported under the Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule. This action also finalizes amendments to the special rules governing certain information obtained under the Clean Air Act, which authorizes the EPA to release or withhold as confidential reported data under the Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule according to the final determinations for such data without taking further procedural steps. This action does not include final confidentiality determinations for data elements that are in the Inputs to Emission Equations' category.

The confidentiality determinations and amendment to 40 CFR 2.301 will affect entities that must submit annual greenhouse gas (GHG) reports as required under 40 CFR part 98. The Administrator determined that this action is subject to the provisions of Clean Air Act (CAA) section 307(d). See CAA section 307(d)(1)(v) (the provisions of CAA section 307(d) apply to "such other actions as the Administrator may determine''). Part 98 and this action affect fuel and chemical suppliers and direct emitters of greenhouse gases. Affected categories and entities include those listed in Table 1 of the preamble in the Federal Register The list in the preamble is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather to provide a guide for readers regarding facilities and suppliers likely to be affected by this action. Other types of facilities and suppliers not listed in the table may also be subject to reporting requirements.

http://www.pollutionengineering.com/Articles/Industry_News/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000001055599

JAY SAYS:

Dear Reader,

Successful options are always at hand, we just need to open our thinking to possibilities.

In the early 1980s, George P. Mitchell, a Houston-based independent energy producer, could see that his company was going to run out of natural gas. Almost three decades later, the results of his effort to do something about the problem are transforming America's energy prospects and the calculations of analysts around the world.

Perhaps the natural gas that was locked into shale—a dense sedimentary rock—could be freed and made to flow. He was prepared to back up his hunch with investment. The laboratory for his experiment was a sprawling geologic formation called the Barnett Shale around Dallas and Fort Worth. Almost everyone with whom he worked was skeptical, including his own geologists and engineers. "You're wasting your money," they told him over the years. But Mr. Mitchell kept at it.

Today, in an age that craves innovation in energy, George Mitchell's breakthrough in the Barnett Shale has opened the door to a potentially profound change in the global energy equation.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703712504576232582990089002.html

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