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Agencies and Their Regulations as Applicable to Facilities
Published in Rengasamy Kasinathan, Environmental Compliance Guide for Facility Managers and Engineers, 2023
Certain sources identified by the EPA must adhere to New Source Performance Standards (NSPS). Under the 1990 CAA amendment, major stationary sources are required to install pollution control devices that allow these sources to meet emissions standards. A major source is any source that has the potential to cause emissions higher than the major source threshold set by the EPA. The current threshold is 100 tons/year of any air pollutant,*10 tons/year of a single hazardous air pollutant (HAP), and 25 tons/year for any combination of HAPs. Title V of the CAA requires these sources to obtain permits to operate. Major sources that must comply with NSPS need to conduct an initial performance test to confirm compliance with the EPA standards. Some may even be required to use Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS).
Introduction
Published in D. Kofi Asante-Duah, Hazardous Waste Risk Assessment, 2021
The objective of the CAA of 1970 is to protect and enhance air quality in order to promote and maintain public health and welfare and the productive capacity of the population. Under Section 109, the CAA requires that National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) be set and ultimately met for any air pollutant which, if present in the air, may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare and whose presence in the air results from numerous or diverse mobile and/or stationary sources. Two types of NAAQS are provided for: primary standards, designed to protect public health, and secondary standards, designed to protect public welfare (e.g., vegetation, visibility, materials). Under Section 111 of the CAA, EPA sets New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for new or modified stationary source categories whose emissions cause or significantly contribute to air pollution which may endanger public health or welfare. Section 112 of the CAA also requires the establishment of National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), where a hazardous air pollutant is defined as a pollutant not covered by a NAAQS and exposure to which may reasonably be anticipated to result in an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible, illness. This covers all pollutants that may cause significant risks.
Regulatory Requirements for Permitting
Published in R. Leon Leonard, Air Quality Permitting, 2018
EPA has the authority for assuring compliance with the Clean Air Act. Some air quality programs, such as New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), and federal rule making are carried out directly by EPA. Where a federal Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) or New Source Review (NSR) permit must be issued by EPA, it is the responsibility of one of the ten geographical EPA regions. However, in most states, programs have been delegated by EPA, and in some states, the delegation is to a regional or local agency within the state. This delegation is not uniform. EPA has evaluated the regulatory programs proposed by state and local agencies to determine whether they meet the requirements of federal law for that program. If the program is at least as stringent as the federal law requires, EPA can delegate the program to the state or regional agency. Care should be taken in seeking an air quality permit to be sure that the agency granting the permit has received delegation from EPA for the permit program involved. If the agency has not been delegated authority, it probably will be necessary to obtain an additional permit from EPA.
Emission factors of industrial boilers burning biomass-derived fuels
Published in Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 2023
Arpit Bhatt, Vikram Ravi, Yimin Zhang, Garvin Heath, Ryan Davis, Eric C.D. Tan
Because boilers can be the largest emission sources for certain pollutants within biorefineries (e.g., boilers contribute the largest fraction of some gaseous pollutants, and PM emissions have been attributed to boilers in some studies), it is important to characterize their emissions and develop control strategies to protect air quality when building a new biorefinery with an on-site boiler. To maintain compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) (EPA 1970), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets emission standards for new and modified stationary pollution sources and/or unit operations, such as boilers, under the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) in the form of emission limits (Federal Register 2017; Federal Register, NSPS 2023). The emission limits in the federal standards control the emissions of pollutants, generally defined as a parameter that relates the quantity of a pollutant with the activity associated with release of that pollutant, also known as the emission factor (EPA 2022). In the case of boilers, burning fuel is considered an activity whose emission factor is expressed as the weight of the pollutant (pounds, kilograms, etc.) divided by the heat input capacity of the boiler (British thermal units or standard cubic feet).