Air Pollution Control Innovations

Medical Waste Incinerator Scrubber MACT Standard Compliance

Posted by Andy Bartocci on Wed, Sep 01, 2021 @ 07:50 AM

Medical waste scrubber DHSThere are several different waste incinerator source categories controlled by EPA standards under the Clean Air Act (CAA). These include hazardous waste combustors (HWC), sewage sludge incinerators (SSI), municipal solid waste (MSW) incinerators, commercial and industrial solid waste (CISWI) incinerators, and Hospital, Medical, and Infectious Waste Incinerators (HMIWI). Each incinerator type has its own Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standard which establishes technology based limits for emitted HAPs. MACT standards are part of the National Emission Standards for 

Medical Waste Venturi DHS

Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) and are applied to source categories that pose adverse risk to human health by the emission of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs).  The HMIWI MACT standard for medical waste incinerators is the most challenging of the incinerator source categories. This standard controls particulate (PM), hydrogen chloride (HCl), sulfur dioxide (SO2), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), dioxins/furans (D/F), nitrous oxide (NOx), and carbon monoxide (CO). Emission limits depend on the incinerator size and weather it is a new or existing source. Small incinerators are less than 200 lb/hr of waste throughput, medium incinerators are between 200 lb/hr and 500 lb/hr, and large incinerators are greater than 500 lb/hr.

Envitech recently completed a project for two medical waste incinerators at a Midwest research facility. These are the first new medical waste incinerators installed in the United States since Envitech installed a 525 lb/hr medical waste incinerator at a research facility in Galveston, TX in 2013.

The scope of supply includes two medical waste incinerator scrubbers and a water treatment system to treat the blowdown from both incinerators. The incinerators are permitted as new, medium size incinerators. Ozone injection is integrated into the system to meet a NOx limit of 67 ppmv. The systems include pre-assembled pumps, piping, valves, and fittings to minimize installation time and cost. The pre-assembly provides long term rigidity, consolidation of space, longer up-time, and improved safety for operators. A description of the process arrangement can be found in this link to an earlier blog post.

Stack testing was performed in June 2021 for both incinerators. Test results confirm the Envitech system reduced emissions well below MACT standard limits, providing a comfortable margin for compliance over the range of operating conditions and waste feed. Below is a summary of stack test performance.

Parameter Emission Limit Result, %Limit
PM < 0.0095 gr/dscf 17.9
Pb < 0.018 mg/dscfm 8.9
Cd < 0.0098 mg/dscfm 4.6
Hg < 0.0035 mg/dscfm 25.7
D/F < 0.014 ng/dscm TEQ < 1
HCl < 7.7 ppmv dry < 1
SO2 < 1.4 ppmv < 1
NOx < 67 ppmv dry 24

Click on the link below to download literature on medical waste incinerator scrubbers.

Download Literature

Topics: Scrubbers, MACT Standards, Medical Waste Incinerator Scrubber, Incinerator Scrubber, HMIWI Scrubber, Stack Testing, Packed Bed Absorbers, Packed Bed Scrubbers, Wet Scrubbers

Sewage Sludge Incinerator Mercury Control Scrubber

Posted by Andy Bartocci on Mon, May 13, 2019 @ 01:53 PM

A municipal waste water treatment plant operates a 2,750 lb/hr fluid bed sewage sludge incinerator (SSI). The Mecury Control Renderingincinerator had been shut down due to safety issues with the granulated activated carbon (GAC) mercury control scrubber. The plant sought expert help to evaluate and recommend a technology solution to replace the GAC and to get the SSI back in operation.

Based on extensive waste incineration gas cleaning experience, the facility contracted Envitech to evaluate the process, make recommendations, and implement a solution.

Envitech reviewedMercury Control Scrubber available literature and data to establish a conservative but justifiable design inlet concentration with sufficient capacity to meet a more conservative design condition without structural changes to the equipment.

An additional Envitech study compared W.L. Gore sorbent polymer catalyst (SPC) mercury control modules to sulfur impregnated activated carbon taking into account capital and operating cost, mercury removal efficiency, safety, and performance risk. The facility implemented Envitech’s recommendation for an Envitech SBC mercury control scrubber. A vessel constructed of fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) provides excellent corrosion resistance and low cost. An inlet heater duct with controls optimizes temperature for maximum performance. An internal duct with bottom outlet near grade direct connects to the existing stack. The vessel has extra capacity to double the number of SPC modules to meet the conservative inlet concentration if needed.

The equipment was commissioned in December, 2018. Inlet and outlet stack tests confirm greater than 96.4% removal and emissions less than 5% of the MACT limit for existing FB SSI. The Envitech SPC mercury control scrubber provides an economic, high performance, safe solution for continued incineration operation.  It can be applied to other types of applications that require mercury control downstream of wet scrubber equipment.  It provides a worthwhile technology to consider for mercury control.

Click on the link below to download a sewage sludge incinerator (SSI) mercury control scrubber case study and other SSI incinerator scrubbing literature.

 

Download Literature

Topics: Scrubbers, MACT Standards, Incinerator Scrubber

Ozone Injection for NOx Control on Medical Waste Incinerators

Posted by Andy Bartocci on Tue, Oct 30, 2018 @ 09:39 AM

Early this year I posted about achieving ultra-low emission limits for medical waste incinerator scrubbers.Med waste incinerator scrubber Front  An example was given for a captive incinerator at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, TX. It’s one of the only systems in the United States permitted as a “new” medical waste incinerator according to the EPA HMIWI (hospital, medical, and infectious waste incinerator) MACT standard. This standard has the most challenging emission limits found in industry today. That is because in 2009 the EPA completed a source review and revised the standard based on a MACT-on-MACT analysis.  Data used to set limits for each pollutant was individually based on waste feed and not incinerator/scrubber technology performance.  This resulted in emission limit reductions for lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and dioxins/furans (D/F) that were orders of magnitude below the previous standard and below the capability of installed equipment.  The impact of the new standard is discussed in greater detail in a 2013 blog post and corresponding paper from the Air & Waste Management Association (AWMA) International Conference on Thermal Treatment Technologies and Hazardous Waste Combustors (IT3/HWC)..
Medical waste incinerator Scrubber add-on controlsExisting incinerators needed to be upgraded with add-on controls to meet the new standard.  New incinerators need air pollution control equipment capable of extraordinarily high removal efficiency for particulate, Pb, Cd, and D/F.  A new medium sized incinerator between 200 to 500 lb/hr capacity, has the additional challenge of meeting NOx.  A medical waste incinerator can be tuned to a NOx limit of about 130 ppmv.  The MACT standard limit for a new medium sized medical waste incinerator was set at 67 ppmv which means NOx abatement is required to guarantee compliance.

Envitech is building two scrubber systems to treat exhaust gases from two new medical waste incinerators that will treat captive waste at a research facility.  The incinerators are permitted as new medium size incinerators which must meet the 67 ppmv NOx limit. The scrubbers have an equipment arrangement for meeting emission standards for PM, HCl, SO2, Pb, Cd, Hg, D/F, and opacity.  The schematic below shows the components of the gas cleaning system. The quencher is used to cool the gas to saturation and remove large particulate. The packed bed condenser/absorber sub-cools the gas and removes acid gases with caustic injection. The Venturi scrubber removes particulate and the majority of heavy metals. The gas then passes through additional polishing controls to meet the ultra-low emission limits for Pd, Cd, Hg, and D/F. The polishing equipment includes a re-heat duct followed by a filter and carbon bed adsorber.Med waste scrubber PFD

NOx removal is achieved by injecting ozone injection into the quencher outlet. The sizIMG_1032 Backside 1e of the condenser/absorber is increased to provide sufficient residence time for ozone-NOx reactions to occur.  Ozone is highly selective for NOx relative to other combustion products.   The NOx is rapidly converted to water soluble species. NO and O3 react to form NO2 and O2.  NO2 and O2 react to form N2O5 and O2. N2O5 and water react to form 2HNO3 which is readily absorbed with caustic solution.

Envitech used it’s rectangular scrubber design for the condenser absorber. To maintain a modular design and make it shippable.  The vessel was flanged connected and shipped in two pieces. The scrubber system otherwise looks like a typical medical waste incinerator scrubber except the condenser/absorber is double the height compared to systems that do not require NOx control.

The system has been built and shipped to the site. The major components are installed at the facility.  Envitech will deliver a water treatment system in 2019 to treat the scrubber effluent before it is discharged to the facilities main water treatment system.  System Start-up is scheduled for 2020.

Click on the link below to download a case study and other medical waste incinerator scrubbing literature.

 Download Literature

Topics: Scrubbers, Acid Gas, MACT Standards, Medical Waste Incinerator Scrubber, Incinerator Scrubber, NOx

Carbon Bed Adsorber and Filter Used to Remove Lead (Pb), Dioxin, Furans, and Mercury (Hg) to Meet New Medical Waste Incinerator Emission Limits

Posted by Andy Bartocci on Thu, Apr 14, 2016 @ 05:30 PM

WMC.jpgIn 2009, the US EPA revised the emission limits for the Hospital, Medical, and Infectious Waste Incinerator (HMIWI) MACT standard. You can follow the link to the blog piece published in May 2013 on the new standard. It dramatically reduced the emission limits for several pollutants including particulate (PM), lead (Pb), and dioxins and furans (D/F). Several existing medical waste incinerators in operation at the time were not capable of meeting the new limits, especially for lead (Pb) and/or dioxin and furans (D/F). Cost effective add-on controls were needed to bring existing system into compliance with the new rules and to allow them to continue to operate.

 

To meet this new challenge, Envitech designed a carbon bed adsorber and filter package to be installed downstream of existing wet scrubbers. The package is comprised of a new fan to overcome additional system pressure drop. Heat of compression from the fan and a re-heater duct heats the wet gas above the dew point to prevent condensation fouling in downstream filter and/or carbon bed adsorber. The system is delivered pre-assembled on a skid to reduce installation time and cost. A cartridge filter removes low concentrations of condensed Pb particulate. The carbon bed adsorber removes dioxins, furans and mercury (Hg). Envitech has upgraded four medical waste incinerators to meet the new MACT standards. All four are operational and compliant with the new standards.

In one case for Wyoming Medical Center (WMC), space was limited for add-on controls. The system had to be installed outdoors and capable of withstanding below freezing temperatures. The existing system did not meet the new limits for lead (Pb) and dioxins/furnace (D/F).The add-on controls included a cartridge filter and a carbon bed adsorber. The equipment was insulated and heat traced to maintain temperature above the dew point after re-heat. System features include:

  •  Shop and skid mounted assembly for ease of installation.
  • Insulation and heat tracing for outdoor operation in a cold climate.
  • Silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) controller to control the heater duct.
  • Compressed air pulse cleaning for automatic particulate removal from the cartridge filters.
  • Pre-wired instrumentation to a control box located on the skid.
  • Manways to facilitate maintenance access.

The system has been operational since 2014 and has been used on a routine basis during cold winter months.   The system comfortably passed a stack test in 2015. Compliance for lead (Pd) is 20 times below the limit and Dioxins/Furans (D/F) is 5 times below the limit. The re-heat and filter package has been used on several other medical waste incinerators and provide a cost effective solution for meeting stringent emission limits. 

Download a free case study to find out how Wymoming Medical Center met the new EPA HMIWI emission limits for their existing medical waste incinerator.

Download  Case Study

Download a free white paper from the 2010 Internationa Conference on Thermal Treatment Technologies and Hazardous Waste Combustors (IT3/HWC) on the 2009 HMIWI MACT standard for medicl waste incinerators.

Download Free Paper 

Topics: particulate control, Venturi scrubbers, MACT Standards, Medical Waste Incinerator Scrubber, Incinerator Scrubber, HMIWI Scrubber

Meeting the HMIWI MACT Standards Ultra Low Lead (Pb) Emission Limit for a New Medical Waste Incinerator Scrubber System

Posted by Andy Bartocci on Wed, Feb 17, 2016 @ 01:28 PM

In October 2014, existing medical waste incinerators had to be compliant with the US EPA’s new Hospital, Medical, and Infectious Waste Incinerator (HMIWI) MACT standards. Nearly all of the systems that planned to continue incineratrion had to be upgraded with add-on controls to meet particulate (PM), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), Cadmium (Cd), dioxins/furans (D/F), or a combination of the pollutants. Pb was the most common of those pollutants requiring additional capture.

Envitech upgraded scrubbers for three existing medical waste incinerators. In October 2015, I presented a 1102_General_Assembly_1.jpgpaper at the International Conference of Thermal Treatment 1102_General_Assembly_1.jpgTechnologies and Hazardous Waste Combustors (IT3/HWC) about using a wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) on the National Institute of Health’s (NIH’s) Rocky Mountain Lab (RML) existing medical waste incinerator. Envitech also designed and built a fourth scrubber system which was permitted as a large (> 500 llb/hr of waste) new medical waste incinerator. The table below compares the previous 1997 standard for lead (Pb) for a large incinerator to the current (2009) standard for an existing incinerator and a new incinerator.

As shown, the current emission limit for an existing incinerator is just 3% of the limit for the 1997 standard. Add-on controls need to achieve 97% reduction in Pb for medical waste incinerators just meeting the previous limit. This is a significant reduction.

Lead (Pb) Emission Limits for Large Incinerators, mg/dscm

  • 1997 standard                   1.2
  • 2009 standard existing       0.036
  • 2009 standard new            0.00069

1102_UTMB_Scrubber_Skid.jpgPb reduction for a new large medical waste incinerator is even more dramatic. The emission limit is a mere 0.06% of the 1997 standard. Compared to an existing system permitted to the new standard, a large new medical waste incinerator must emit 2 orders of magnitude less Pb.

Envitech’s scrubber for a permitted new medical waste incinerator recently passed the stack test and demonstrated compliance with Pb emission less than 0.00069 mg/dscm. We believe it’s the only systems in operation today that is compliant with the HMIWI MACT standard for a large, new medical waste incinerator.

It is interesting that despite the ultra low emission standards required by the HMIWI MACT standard, there is still significant public resistance to new permitted systems. It’s clear the public doesn’t understand the impact of these rules and how far technology has come to enable environmentally friendly and safe operation of these systems. The role of these captive systems (treating waste from the facility where it is generated) may become more important in emergency response plans of state and local governments. This was evident during the recent Ebola episode where large amounts of waste needed to be treated and disposed. Some would claim that treating the waste at the facility where it is generated poses less public risk than transporting the waste on public roads and highways to a centralized hazardous waste facility. More work needs to be done to educate the public on the capability of these advanced emission control technologies.

For more information on this topic, please read our paper at the IT3 conference.

Download Free Paper

Topics: Scrubbers, MACT Standards, Ebola Waste, Medical Waste Incinerator Scrubber, HMIWI Scrubber

IT3/HWC 2015 Conference October 20-22, 2015 – Wet Electrostatic Precipitator for Medical Waste Incinerators

Posted by Andy Bartocci on Tue, Sep 22, 2015 @ 10:47 AM

Envitech will attend the International Conference on Thermal Treatment Technologies (IT3/HWC), October 20-22, 2015 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown, Houston, Texas.  The preliminary technical program can be downloaded from the conference website.   The conference features key note speakers from Veolia, Clean Harbors, Essroc, TCEQ, and B3 Systems.

Envitech will have an exhibit booth and present a paper, “Meeting the New Hospital, Medical, and Infectious Waste Incinerator (HMIWI) MACT with a Wet Electrostatic Precipitator (WESP)”.  The paper will provide an overview of a new medical waste incinerator scrubber system with a wet electrostatic precipitator to treat the off gas from two existing medical waste incinerators. The new system was required to achieve a 20% reduction in particulate (PM) emissions, and a 93% reduction in lead (Pb) emissions from the previous gas cleaning system.  The new system has been operational since October 2014.  The table below compares the performance of the emission limits to the new compliance standards. The results demonstrate the system comfortably meets the new EPA MACT standards.

 

Pollutant

 

Units

Compliance

Limit

Test Result

% of limit

Particulates, EPA Method 5 gr/dscf 0.020 15%
Pb EPA Method 29 mg/dscm 0.018 6%
Cd, EPA Method 29 mg/dscm 0.013 10%
Hg mg/dscm 0.025 1.0%
Dioxins/furans, EPA Method 23 Total (ng/dscm) 0.85 5%
  TEQ (ng/dscm) 0.020 15%
HCl, EPA Method 26 ppmv 7.7 1.6%
SO2 ppmv 4.2 35%

Click on the icon below to download a copy of the paper.

Free_Paper

Topics: particulate control, Venturi scrubbers, wet electrostatic precipitators, MACT Standards, Medical Waste Incinerator Scrubber, Incinerator Scrubber, HMIWI Scrubber

Medical Waste Incinerator Scrubber Used to Process Ebola Waste

Posted by Andy Bartocci on Wed, Nov 05, 2014 @ 05:43 PM

Envitech recently got noticed in a local news story by Michael Chen of Channel 10 News, “Local Company Helps Dispose of Ebola-tainted Waste”.  The story talks about the challenges of processing Ebola waste and how Envitech’s Medical Waste Incinerator Scrubber at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) was used to dispose of waste generated by an Ebola patient in Texas.

UTMB operates the only permitted medical waste incinerator in the state of Texas.  Since 1991 the facility has operated an incinerator which uses an Envitech wet scrubber system to clean the exhaust gases of harmful pollutants.  A new incinerator system was recently installed to meet the new EPA rules promulgated for the hospital, medical, and infectious waste incinerator (HMIWI) maximum achievable control technology (MACT) standard.  The impact of these rules is discussed in a previous blog post.

The outlet emission requirements of the new standards are a significant reduction from the previous 1997 standards.  The allowable outlet emissions for many of the metals, i.e. lead (Pd), Cadmium (Cd) are less than 1% of the previous emission limits. For example, the allowable concentrations for Pb,and Cd are measured in 10-7 and 10-8 gr/dscf, respectively.  These are some of the lowest HAPs emission limits for industrial sources in the United States. Medical Waste Scrubber Below is a summary performance guarantee for the new scrubber system based on the new HMIWI standard:

  • PM < 18.3 mg/dscm (0.008 gr/dscf)
  • Lead < 0.00069 mg/dscm (3.0 x 10-7 gr/dscf)
  • Cd < 0.00013 mg/dscm (5.7 x 10-8 gr/dscf)
  • HCl < 5.1 ppmv dry
  • SO2 < 8.1 ppmv dry
  • Dioxins/Furans < 0.035 ng/dscm on TEQ basis

Recent episodes of processing highly infectious waste from Ebola patients may re-ignite a policy debate on medical waste disposal. In the early 1990, many hospitals were going to a model of owning and operating a relatively small medical waste incinerator to process and destroy medical waste generated in-house. These systems typically have a capacity of 500 to 1,500 lb/hr. As air emission standards became stricter, many hospitals decided to shut down their incinerators and ship their waste to larger, centralized medical waste incinerators. These systems are much larger in capacity. For example, the largest medical waste incinerator facility is in Baltimore, MD with a permitted capacity of 150 ton/hr. The trade-off of a centralized waste incinerator is the risk and liability of transporting the waste on public roads and highways. The recent Ebola outbreaks bring to light that some of this waste can be highly infectious and pose a significantly greater risk to public health. It also came to light that a single Ebola patient generates a substantial amount of infectious waste. In this scenario, it may make more sense for facilities to have the capacity to destroy their own waste and avoid the risk of transporting it over great distances on public roads.

The advancement of scrubber technology and compliance with the new, more stringent EPA MACT standards, confirm the ability to operate medical waste incinerators with virtually no harmful emissions into the air.  In addition to the UTMB medical waste scrubber system, Envitech has upgraded several other medical waste incinerators for meeting the new standards.  Based on the extreme low emission limits, the results are truly groundbreaking and may encourage states and facilities to permit new systems.

For more information on HMIWI regulations, please read our white paper.

Download Free Paper

Topics: Venturi scrubbers, MACT Standards, Ebola Waste, Medical Waste Incinerator Scrubber, Incinerator Scrubber, HMIWI Scrubber

Medical Waste Incinerator Scrubbers for the new HMIWI MACT Standard

Posted by Andy Bartocci on Fri, May 24, 2013 @ 01:00 PM

In 2009 I wrote a blog piece about the new EPA rules promulgated for the hospital, medical, and infectious waste incinerator (HMIWI) maximum achievable control technology (MACT)describe the image standard.  The compliance dates for these rules are fast approaching.  Facilities with existing equipment must demonstrate compliance to the new standards by October 2014.  Envitech is already under contract with several facilities to retro-fit existing medical waste incinerator scrubbers with add-on control equipment to meet the new standards. 

The emissions reduction challenge with the new rules can be seen in the adjacent graph which compares the difference between the 2007 MACT standard to the new MACT standard.   Medical Waste ScrubbersStack emissions must meet substantially lower limits for Cd, Pb, and Hg. In many cases, this requires add-on controls capable of greater than 90% removal of sub-micron condensed metals.  Most facilities are putting on a re-heat and filter package to remove the condensed metals.  A few will use wet electrostatic precipitators (WESP) which are more expensive.   The ability to meet the new rules using a re-heat and filter package has been demonstrated for lead and cadmium on a commercial and industrial waste incinerator (CISWI).  The WESP capability has been demonstrated for reduction of lead emission achieved at a secondary lead smelter in California.

Another emissions reductions challenge is dioxins/furans (D/F).  Emission limits for D/F have been reduced from 125 ng/dscm Total and 2.3 ng/dscm TEQ (corrected to 7% O2) to 25 and 0.6 ng/dscm, respectively.  These emission limits are too low to be met with carbon injection.  An add-on control package of re-heat and carbon bed absorber is required to meet the new limits.

Solutions to these challenges exist and facilities are taking steps to meet them.  Click on the link below to download the HMIWI MACT Rule paper from the 2010 International Conference of Thermal Treatment Technologies and Hazardous Waste Combustors (IT3/HWC).

Download Free Paper 

 

Topics: particulate control, Venturi scrubbers, Scrubbers, wet electrostatic precipitators, cleaning systems, MACT Standards

Secondary Lead Smelter WESP Performance

Posted by Andy Bartocci on Tue, Oct 04, 2011 @ 01:56 PM

In 2009 I gave a paper at International Conference on Thermal Treatment Technologies (IT3) on a wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) system for the Quemetco secondary lead smelting facility in Southern California.  It was explained that the system was an add-on control to help the plant meet a cancer risk index by removing low concentrations of metals.  The facility was meeting stack emission limits and had similar control technology used by other facilities in the industry including bag-houses,Wet Electrostatic Precipitator HEPA filters, and wet scrubbers. Because residential neighborhoods had moved closer to the boundaries of the plant over the years, the stack emission limits were insufficient to meet the cancer risk index.  In other words, the facility had to achieve lower emission levels than other similar plants. The WESP system was installed in 2007 and provided a performance guarantee for arsenic, lead, and nickel which were the larger contributors to the cancer risk index.

 

In May 2011, the EPA released the new National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for secondary lead smelting facilities.  The report sites in section III.B.2 that two of the 14 secondary lead smelting facilities have estimated actual lead emission only moderately lower than the allowable emission level (about 2-3 time lower).  The majority of the other facilities have estimated actual emissions in the range of 10 to 100 times lower than allowable.  However, one facility with highly advanced controls has an estimated actual emission of about 1,500 times below allowable emission levels. This facility is the Quemetco facility operating with a WESP system.  It can be surmised the plant is achieving emission levels 15 to 150 times lower than the other lead smelting facilities.

 

In June of 2010 a public letter on behalf of RSR Corporation (Quemetco) was presented to Mr. Charles French, Metals and Minerals Group, of the EPA. The letter states that the WESP system yielded dramatic reductions in air emissions from its operations.  The cancer risk was reduced by 87% to 2.88 cancer cases in one million exposed individuals over a 70-year evaluation period.  Prior to installation of the WESP, Quemetco emitted 615 pound of lead annually.  The letter reports that lead emissions plummeted to 1.22 pounds per year – a 99.8 percent reduction.  A table is provided in the letter that summarizes significant reductions of other hazardous air pollutants. Some of the reported metals reductions include the following: 

Pollutant

Pre-WESP Emissions (lb/yr)

Post-WESP Emissions (lb/yr)

Percent Reduction (%)

Lead

614.95

1.22

99.8

Arsenic

96.01

1.59

98.3

Nickel

7.07

0.18

97.5

Cadmium

6.55

0.53

99.2

Chromium (VI)

0.33

0.06

81.8

Dioxins

0.0004

3.83 x 10-7

99.9

The data presented in the letter is consistent with the initial stack test data that was shared with Envitech following the installation.  Although the system provided a guarantee for only three metal compounds, we expected similar removal for any condensed metal at the inlet of the WESP.  The data demonstrates this was the case.

The consistent performance since the installation in 2007 demonstrates the tremendous capability of the WESP system to achieve dramatic reductions of condensed metals in a robust fashion for a process that must operate 24/7/365 days per year.

For a copy of the full paper, please download the white paper below.

Download Free White Paper

Topics: particulate control, wet electrostatic precipitators, MACT Standards

30th International Conference on Thermal Treatment Technologies (IT3)

Posted by Andy Bartocci on Fri, Jun 10, 2011 @ 11:44 AM

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.

Download Paper

Topics: Announcements, MACT Standards