The Use of Nahcolite Ore and Bag Filters For Sulfur Dioxide Emission Control

This paper describes some technical and economic aspects of the nahcolite ore injection process for the simultaneous removal of fly ash and sulfur oxides from stack gases. The process is capable of removing greater than 99% of the particulate matter and greater than 70% of the sulfur oxides present in such gases. In the process, nahcolite ore, a naturally occurring material containing 70 to 90% sodium bicarbonate, is ground to 90% passing through —200 mesh screens. Approximately 20% of the ground ore is used to precoat the filter bags in a baghouse filter while the remainder of the material is fed into the flue gas Just ahead of the baghouse. The flue gas is drawn through the baghouse by induced draft fans and sent up the stack. Most of the SO₂ and practically all of the fly ash in the flue gas can be removed as the gas passes through the filter bags. The spent nahcolite ore and fly ash are collected and conveyed to waste disposal as landfill, or alternatively processed for insolubilization by coprecipitation prior to landfilling. The technical feasibility of the process has been demonstrated in both bench scale and pilot scale engineering studies. Economic analyses performed for the cases of plants located in the midwest and southwest indicate lower capital costs for the nahcolite injection process when compared to wet scrubbing. On an annual cost basis, the nahcolite ore Injection process is comparable in cost to wet scrubbing for the case of the southwestern power plant, and somewhat more expensive for the case of the midwestern plant.     

Comment on “Methylcyclopentadienyl Manganese Tricarbonyl as an Antiknock: Composition and Fate of Manganese Exhaust Products”

In an article published in the August 1975, Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association entitled “Methylcyclopentadienyl Manganese Tricarbonyl as an Antiknock: Composition and Pate of Manganese Exhaust Products,” the authors conclude that, “… use of MMT in gasoline will result in no public health hazards, because of the low toxicity of manganese and because of the very low concentration of MMT that would be used in gasoline …. If all gasoline contained 0.1 g Mn/gal, the amount of airborne Mn its exhaust would contribute to urban areas would contribute to urban areas would be only 0.02-0.2 μg/m³, with a median value of 0.05 μg/m³.”     

Methylcyclopentadienyl Manganese Tricarbonyl as an Antiknock: Composition and Fate of Manganese Exhaust Products

Methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (MMT) has been marketed as a combustion improver for fuel oil and turbine fuel. Use concentrations for this purpose are about 0.025 g manganese/gal in fuel oil and 0.08 to 0.5 g/gal in turbine fuels. In addition, it has been used to a small extent in gasoline.     

Epa Looks At “Fugitive Emissions”

The various aspects of two similar but indeed different air pollution problems are discussed. Both fugitive emissions (industrial) and fugitive dust emissions represent problems affecting attainment of national standards. Both are difficult to quantify so as to determine the relative magnitude of the problem. Both have been generally overlooked in the past in relation to developing an effective and widespread air pollution control program. Both problems will generally require the use of non-conventional air pollution control measures. Both are also becoming the subject of more intensive investigation as more knowledge is being gathered to implicate such emissions as significant air pollution problems.     

Emission Control in Coking Operations By Use of Stage Charging

At the Clairton Coke Works of the United States Steel Corporation (the world’s largest coke plant), with coal charges of about 30,000 net tons per day, a system designated as “stage charging” has been developed for charging coal into the coke oven chamber without emissions to the atmosphere. The principles of the system are based on controlled sequential flow of the coal from the charging hoppers, during which the oven chamber is maintained under a very slight negative pressure condition by use of steam aspiration in the offtakes for on-the-main charging. The techniques are basic but require knowledge of the coal characteristics, adequate and properly maintained aspirating systems, including clean offtake piping, control of coal volume in the individual hoppers, and last, and probably most important, adherence by the operating crew to specific charging and leveling practices.     

Cooling Towers and the Environment

Measurements of natural draft cooling tower plume behavior, as well as meteorological variables, were obtained from aircraft flights near major power plants of the American Electric Power System. Persistence of the visible plume to great distances depends essentially on ambient humidity. Atmospheric stability at plume elevation was also important. Cooling tower-induced fog at ground-level was never observed in any of the tests, and aerodynamic downwash of the visible plume was absent also. The cooling towers did cause modification of natural clouds and they occasionally shadowed some local areas from the sun. Merging of the stack and cooling tower plumes was a common occurrence.     

A Wind Tunnel Study of Gaseous Pollutants in City Street Canyons

Steady state mean concentrations of tracer gas were measured in a 400:1 scale model of an idealized city with variable geometry placed within a wind tunnel at various orientations to the mean flow for a free stream velocity of 6.8 ft/sec. The tracer gas was released from two parallel line sources to simulate lanes of traffic in an effort to quantify the persistence of pollution as well as the mean values realized at street levels. An aerodynamically rough turbulent boundary layer of neutral thermal stratification was employed to simulate the atmosphere. Values of concentration measured in the model city were converted to prototype concentrations in ppm and compared to National Ambient Air Quality Standards. It was shown that single isolated structures may cause favorable mixing of pollution downwind but very high concentrations exist in the immediate leeward vicinity of the building. Two favorable geometries for city blocks tested were found to reduce pedestrian exposure to pollution both near heavy traffic congestion and downwind. It was concluded that the pollutant dilution was controlled by the mean flow rather than by turbulent diffusion and that the lateral spread of the plume was slight as one proceeded downwind of the line source. The combination of favorable geometry and higher dilution velocities may bring pollution levels down to existing Air Quality Standards. The body of information presented in this paper should interest city planners and air quality monitoring personnel, as well as those researchers attempting to study and model flow in city street canyons. It provides order of magnitude estimates on pedestrian and office worker exposure to pollutants under a wide range of conditions.     

Some Recent Experience with Fabric Filters for Paniculate Collection

EPA's “Third Symposium on Fabric Filters for Particle Collection,” held in Tucson December 5 and 6, 1977, emphasized the results obtained from both laboratory and field experience. Data from selected new and/or continuing research programs as well as from new pilot and field applications are reviewed.     

Cross-Media Environmental Impacts of Air Pollution Regulations for a Coal-Fired Power Plant

The types and rates of pollutant emissions from a coal-fired power plant depend upon plant design, coal characteristics, and environmental control policy. In the past, air pollution regulations were often promulgated without rigorous analysis of the resulting energy penalties and secondary environmental impacts that occur in other environmental media (air, land, or water), which are counterproductive to overall environmental quality. This paper describes a Comparative Assessment Model that has been developed to consider systematically such tradeoffs for conventional and advanced coal-to-electric technologies. The model is applied to quantify the secondary (“cross-media”) environmental and resource impacts resulting from alternative air pollution control policies that reduce sulfur dioxide emissions from a 1000 MW power plant. Multimedia pollutant burdens are presented, together with the increased requirements for coal, limestone, and water that are incurred in generating a fixed net quantity of electricity. The development of sound public policy requires that environmental regulations be sensitive to adverse effects in all environmental media, and that tradeoffs involved in the regulation of specific pollutants to one medium be rigorously and systematically characterized.     

Flow Patterns Upstream of Isokinetic Dust Sampling Probes

In isokinetic sampling from a gas stream it is usually assumed that the flow pattern upstream of the sampling probe is not affected by the presence of the probe. That some probes do seriously affect the gas streamlines is shown by velocity traverses taken with a hot wire anemometer under controlled flow conditions in a wind tunnel. The degree to v/hich the streamlines are affected depends on the wall thickness and taper of the nozzle, the stem diameter, as well as on the size and proximity of sampling accessories in the vicinity of the nozzle. For a probe to cause negligible disturbance under isokinetic conditions it should have a sharp-edged nozzle with little or no outside bevel, and the stem of the probe should be at least 11 stem diameters downstream from the nozzle inlet.