The new ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and potential economic impacts on the portland cement industry

摘要

The Clean Air Act (CAA) requires the United Stages Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for pollutants considered harmful to public health and the environment. Ozone (O) is one of six “criteria” air pollutants for which NAAQS have been set by the U.S. EPA and in 2015 the Ozone NAAQS standard was lowered to 0.070parts per million (ppm) from its previous level of 0.075 ppm. This new standard is significant for the U.S. manufacturing industry because it is estimated that the new standard could cost industry over $140 billion per year and become the most expensive regulation ever imposed on the American public. A significant amount of this expense will likely come from the cost of controlling emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC), both of which are precursor pollutants to ozone. The portland cement industry may be significantly affected by this new ozone standard with regard to its control of emissions of NOx and to a lesser extent, VOC. The lower ozone standard will create more ozone nonattainment areas nationwide, which will increase the likelihood that stronger control devices will be necessary to control emissions from new and existing portland cement plants. The use of Selective Noncatalytic Reduction (SNCR) systems and Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems will likely be required in an attempt to achieve NOx emission reductions of 90 percent or greater in these areas. For controlling emissions of VOC, the use of a Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer (RTO), which can achieve emission reductions of greater than 90 percent, could be implemented as well. This presentation will give an overview of the new ozone standard and describe the options the portland cement industry will have in the future to comply with this very stringent U.S. EPA emission standard.