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Show activities included: scaling of the prototype design to the required field burner size; refinement of the design through testing under controlled conditions at the GRIIDOE Burner Engineering Research Laboratory; installation and start-up of the burners at Schlosser; and monitoring of emissions, efficiency and product quality over a wide range of furnace operations. Introduction Title 1 of the 1990 Qean Air Act Amendments focuses on the attainment of National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for pollutants such as ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter. To achieve compliance with these standards, regulations limiting emissions of these species, as well as ozone precursors, are being enacted at the state and local levels. These regulations are based on State Implementation Plans developed by each state and approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. As a result, emissions control requirements placed on industrial facilities can vary considerably by location. For industrial facilities, natural gas represents the cleanest fossil fuel option. In natural gas combustion, the primary pollutants of concern are oxides of nitrogen. NOx and volatile organic species are precursors to the fonnation of near-ground-Ievel ozone. As shown in Figure 1, most industrial regions of the United States are not in compliance with the NAAQS for ozone. Consequently, regulators in many of these areas are requiring reductions in the emissions of NOx from stationary sources as part of their ozone compliance strategy. The South Coast Air Basin in Southern California experiences the highest ozone concentrations in the U.S. and this region clearly faces the most challenging air pollution problem in the country. Regulations in the Basin are developed and implemented by the South Coast Air QUality Management District (SCAQMD). Until this year, the SCAQMD employed a "command and control" approach. Regulations were enacted that dictated absolute emission concentration limits for specific classes of combustion equipment. Recently the SCAQMD implemented a market driven regulatory approach known as the Regional Qean Air Incentives Market (RECLAIM) program. Under this plan, companies emitting more than 4 tons/yr of NOx would be assigned an allowable initial emission level. This level would then be ratcheted downward by about 8% each year from 1994 to 2003 [Ref. 1]. The RECLAIM NOx market would comprise about 420 facilities that represent approximately 60 percent of the currently permitted NOx emissions in the Basin. Each company has the option of installing control technologies or purchasing credits from other finns that have already implemented controls and are generating emissions 2 |
