CAN EXISTING AIR POLLUTION CONTROL EQUIPMENT MEET FUTURE STATE AND FEDERAL REQUIREMENTS FOR MERCURY CONTROL? - WHAT THE ICR DATA TELLS US

摘要

The U.S. EPA is in the process of developing regulations for the control of mercury emissions from coal- and oil-fired utility boilers. The EPA regulations are scheduled to be proposed in late 2003, and should be final by late 2004, with a compliance date of early 2008. These regulations will affect all new and existing units. The EPA has not yet determined the level of control that will be required. However, several bills have been proposed in the 107th Congress that would dictate the control efficiency requirements for mercury from these sources. In addition, several States have begun developing their own mercury control regulations, and in some cases these identify specific control efficiency requirements. In order to assess the ability of existing air pollution control equipment to meet the expected range of mercury control efficiency requirements to be imposed by the upcoming regulations, the data from the EPA's Information Collection Request (ICR) was evaluated. The ICR test program represents the most comprehensive mercury testing effort ever undertaken on full-scale utility boilers, and it was specifically designed to provide information on the control capabilities of various types of APC equipment. This paper presents the results of a comparison between the control efficiency capabilities of existing APC equipment as evidenced by the ICR test data and the expected range of control efficiency that will be required by upcoming Federal and State mercury control programs for utility boilers.