CCR Regulations Create Imbalances and Drive Market Shifts in the CCR Resource Recovery Industry

摘要

The new US EPA Coal Combustion Residual (CCR) regulations have a stated goal to address disposal of CCRs at electric generation stations that use coal as the primary fuel source. While the regulations generally exempt beneficial use of CCRs, the impacts of the disposal requirements will continue to have significant impacts on the industry that focuses on recovering the resource value of coal combustion co-products (CCCP). The utility and ash resource recovery industries have continued to adjust to a litany of environmental regulations over the decades, including air, water and solid waste related rule changes. The new federal CCR regulations will create resource availability imbalances and drive adjustments to the supply chain side of the CCR market. As utilities make changes to their ash handling systems to address both the CCR regulations and the new Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELG), the indirect impacts to the co-products and their markets are profound. Some plants will choose to close completely as a cumulative result of the cost impacts from the new regulations, while plants that choose to run must invest substantial dollars in modifying their CCR handling systems. Each utility decision will cause impacts to the availability and quality of CCRs and therefore impact the resource recovery markets, since demand and supply balances will be upset. The utilities and marketing industry must rebalance its infrastructure to meet the new supply/demand dynamics, which may include beneficiation investment, logistics infrastructure investment and/or abandonment of some markets, if no economical solutions can be found. Key utility decisions on compliance methods should incorporate potential impacts to the existing or new resource recovery programs. This paper will discuss how the plant modifications may impact recovery options and likely impacts to CCP and CCCP markets in various regions of the US.