Last month I attended the 30th International Conference on Thermal Treatment Technologies & Hazardous Waste Combustors (IT3). The conference was held May 10-13 in Jacksonville Florida. The IT3 Conference provides a forum for the discussion of state-of-the-art technical information, regulations, and public policy on thermal treatment technologies and their relationship to air emissions, greenhouse gases and climate change. Envitech has been a long time participate of the conference dating back to our founding in 1994 and this year was a sponsor for the annual meeting.
It was announced during the Program Advisory Committee (PAC) meeting that I will be the new Vice Technical Chair for the conference. Roy Cross of AMEC (formerly MACTEC) will hold the past Chair position and Gary Elliott of Lafarge North America will be the acting chair. I look forward to working with this group to plan next year’s conference and to help the conference grow.
This year’s conference had several worthwhile technical tracks ranging from Biomass, Waste-to-Energy, Alternatives to Incineration, and Multi-Metal CEMs. Particularly noteworthy were the sessions on Regulators Perspective on HWC MACT Implementation and An Introduction to Recently Announced Combustion MACT Regulations. These sessions were haired by Mel Keener of the Coalition for Responsible Waste Incineration (CRWI) and co-chaired by Heather McHale of Coterie Environmental. The sessions were well attended by conference attendees. The Regulators Perspective included 3 U.S. EPA representatives, Frank Behan, Charlie Hall – Region 5, and Kishor Fuitwala – Region 6, as well as to representatives from Alabama Department of Environmental Management (DEM). The session on MACT regulations included the, non-hazardous solid waste rule, industrial boiler and process heater rule, commercial and industrial solid waste incinerator rule, Portland cement rule, Hospital/Medical/Infectious Waste Incineration Rule, Sewage Sludge Incinerator Rule, and the Electric Utilities rule. Many of these rules had recent updates that will impact owners/operators. The presentations were designed to explain the impact and timelines or the recent rule changes.
For a white paper from the conference on ultra low SO2 control for thermal oxidizers, click on the link below.
