FABRIC
FILTER NEWSLETTER
January 2010
No. 411
PRINTER FRIENDLY COPY
Regulating the Shipping Industry is a problem because most ships fly flags of convenience, operating under the regulations of the most economically compliant countries. Regulations can control emissions while at port (or within territorial waters.) The EPA has promulgated new standards for engines and fuel on US flagged ships. In addition they are attempting to create an emissions control area (ECA) for thousands of miles of coastline. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), a United Nations agency, is set to vote in March 2010 on the adoption of the joint U.S.-Canada ECA, which would result in stringent standards for large foreign-flagged and domestic ships operating within the designated area.
Many ships use diesel generators at port. Using shore power is called "cold-ironing." (Ships are generally not designed to accept power from shore. To supply low voltage power required for most ship systems as many as 10 cables would have to be installed at each port call.) Some estimates indicate that each ship produces 70 pounds of SOx, 1,000 pounds of NOx and 15 pounds of particulate per 24 hour port call. One company, APL, has plans to market an electrical system modification that would cost approximately $225K per ship to allow operators to use high voltage shore power (thus reducing connections to just one HV cable.)
The EPA is forming a Small Business Advocacy Review Panel to provide input
regarding a new rule relating to brick kilns (approximately 82 percent of which
are small businesses.)
Following a similar announcement in July covering the mining industry, the EPA has published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking relating to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) for chemical, petrochemical, coal and utility industries. CERCLA requires companies to provide financial assurance to fund clean-up closure and monitoring of facilities in the event that the operator is bankrupt or otherwise unable (or unwilling) to pay for these activities. (The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) has had similar regulations in place since 1985 applicable to RCRA TSD permitted hazardous waste handlers. Financial assurance is also required by other regulations and includes mining and some other activities on federal lands, and storage tanks.)
These rules are at least partially the result of a recent court decision in which the Sierra Club was the plaintiff forcing the EPA to issue regulations which had been required by legislation since the 1980’s.
This could have significant financial impact on operators who are not already funding these future obligations. Affected industries include:
Chemical Manufacturing (NAICS 3251);
Resin, Rubber, Synthetic Manufacturing (NAICS 3252);
Pesticides, Fertilizer, Agricultural Chemical Manufacturing (NAICS 3253);
Pharmaceutical, Medicine Manufacturing (NAICS 3254);
Paint, Coating, Adhesive Manufacturing (NAICS 3255);
Soap, Cleaning Compound, Toilet Preparation Manufacturing (NAICS 3256);
Other Chemical Product and Preparation Manufacturing (NAICS 3259);
Petroleum Refineries (NAICS 32411);
Asphalt Paving, Roofing, Saturated Materials Manufacturing (NAICS 32412);
Other Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing (NAICS 32419)
Electric Power Generation T and D (NAICS 2211).
Duke Power has agreed to a consent decree on their 1999 lawsuit regarding their Gallagher facility in Indiana. The $85 million settlement also requires Duke to spend $6.25 million on environmental mitigation projects (including funds to the U.S. Forest Service.) Duke must decide by January 2012 whether to repower units 1 and 3 (which are currently coal fired) with natural gas or shut them down. (By using natural gas rather than coal, Duke will eliminate emissions of particulate matter and mercury from the units. In addition if Duke opts to switch to natural gas the EPA estimates CO2 emissions to go down 50 percent.) The settlement also requires that Duke install new SO2 controls at units 2 and 4.
According to reports, this is the 17th Clean Air Act settlement related to emissions from coal-fired power plants under the new source review requirements.
According to the EPA, enforcement activities (relating to air water and land) at approximately 4,600 facilities resulted in:
“requiring polluters to invest more than $5 billion on pollution controls, cleanup, and environmental projects. Civil and criminal defendants committed to install controls and take other measures to reduce pollution by approximately 580 million pounds annually once all required controls are fully implemented.”
The following chart from the EPA website summarizes air pollution key results.
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FY 2007 - 2009 Annual Results |
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Fiscal Year |
Estimated Pollutants to be Reduced or Treated |
Estimated Investments in Pollution Control |
Civil Penalties |
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2007 |
0.8 Million |
$11 million |
$0.6 million |
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2008 |
0.09 million |
$7 Million |
$2.5 million |
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2009 |
0.19 Million |
$0.19 Million |
$0.34 Million |
In October of 2007 the EPA had established an air toxics compliance and enforcement strategy for FY2008-2010 focussed on leak detection and repair, industrial flares, and surface coating.
Pennsylvania pharmaceutical manufacturer, Minrad, was fined in excess of $200K and agreed to install pollution control equipment.
CECO announced 15 new contracts (totaling approximately $10M) for air pollution control equipment. The company said the new orders came from companies representing a wide variety of industries, including power, chemicals, steel, automotive, foundry, food, refining, and aluminum.
New orders include: SNCR system for NOx control at a multi-incinerator facility in southwestern China, Pulverized coal combustion unit at a paper mill in Guangzhou and SNCR demonstration on a medium-sized electric utility boiler firing oil shale in Estonia.
Donaldson opened their expanded facility in Manesar, India (now 70,000 ft2.) Donaldson may add a second manufacturing facility in India to handle increased business demand in the power generation market (and turbine inlet filtration demand increasing, plus expected tighter diesel vehicle standards expected in April 2010.) FY 2009 sales by geographic market area: 41% US, 30% Europe and 22% Asia Pacific. (this compares with 20% to Asia Pacific in FY2007)
Donaldson has patented an alloy (polysulfone and a poly (N-vinyl lactam)
material, nanofiber and microfiber. The material offers improved resistance to:
heat, humidity, aqueous liquids, solvent streams, high flow rates, high particle
loads, reverse pulse cleaning, operational abrasion, submicron particulates.
Advantageous features when used in gas filtration applications include: higher
efficiency, lower flow restriction, high durability (stress related or
environmentally related) in the presence of abrasive particulates and a smooth
outer surface free of loose fibers or fibrils. The overall structure of the
filter materials provides an overall thinner media allowing improved media area
per unit volume, reduced velocity through the media, improved media efficiency
and reduced flow restrictions.
An additive can be used with the alloy to produce a fiber with a surface coating
of additive on the microfiber with oleophobicity, hydrophobicity or other
favorable characteristics for high temperature, high humidity and difficult
operating conditions. The blending of the polysulfone and poly (N-vinyl lactam)
polymers is used to tailor existing commercial polymers to specific end use
requirements. Polysulfones are rigid and tough, exhibit excellent inherent
burning resistance characteristics and excellent electrical insulative
capabilities.
Alstom obtained a contract (approximately €70M) from Asian Aluminum and Copper producer, Hindalco Industries. Alstom will design, engineer, supply, install and commission gas treatment plants to meet Indian environmental standards at the Mahan and Aditya aluminum smelter facilities (due onstream in early 2012.)
Arizona Public Service Cholla has almost completed their 4 year $350 million environmental upgrade. In the short term they intend to evaluate several different methods for capturing CO2 including membrane filtration and a multi year coal gasification and algae-growing project. Unit 2, the only unit not included in the aforementioned upgrade, is scheduled for $150M upgrade including modifications to the scrubber and a fabric filter in 2013.
Veolia has plans to modify the flue gas treatment system at the hazardous waste treatment facility (including incinerator) they operate in Hong Kong.
Laidlaw Energy Group, intends to build a 65MW waste fueled power plant on the site of the Fraser Paper Mill located in Berlin, NH. The facility includes a Babcock & Wilcox boiler (which was installed in 1993 at a cost of nearly $100 million). B&W will make boiler modifications and is also expected to provide and guarantee the back-end emissions controls. Laidlaw expects to sell renewable attributes, known as “RECs”.
Singapore based Keppel Integrated Engineering has obtained $53M in orders from China’s Shenzhen Energy including work to more than double the capacity of an existing WTE facility (the facility is expected to be able to treat 4,200 tons of solid waste per day. According to Keppel, they have cornered the market for imported waste-to-energy solution in China, claiming a 60 per cent market share. Last year, Keppel secured two projects, one in Tianjin and the other in Shandong.
AE&E obtained an 21M€ order from (local waste and disposal authority) SYCTOM to modernize (revamp combustion and steam generation systems in order to extend the plant life by 8 years) a waste to energy plant at Ivry-sur-Seine. This facility, which has an annual capacity of 730,000 tonnes, is France's largest WTE facility. Of the 21M€ 15 will go to AE&E subsidiary Inova (waste heat treatment process)
(In 2007 AE&E completed a WTE facility in Issy-les Moulineaux for SYCTOM.)
PM Group is carrying out the engineering design and construction management of site. Key suppliers include: Babcock and Wilcox Vølund, a Danish provider of the waste-fired power plant technology; LAB, a French supplier for the flue gas cleaning system, and MWH for process design integration. John Sisk and Sons are civil contractors.
Gas cleaning system will use recycled water from the process to cool gases, lime will be injected to remove acids, activated carbon will be injected into the flue gas to absorb dioxins, heavy metals and other hydrocarbons. Activated carbon (with adsorbed particulates) is to be removed by the baghouse filter, which is the first stage dioxin removal. Before leaving the stack, the flue gas will pass through a monitoring station connected to the control room which will continuously monitor temperature and emissions. ZhongDe Group and Dingzhou Ruiquan Solid Waste Treatment Co. obtain order for Dingzhou Project
ZhongDe obtained their fourth major project (229M RMB), a 600Ton per day 9MW WTE facility for Daqilian Village, Hebei Province. Each of the incinerators is to be equipped with wet gas cleaning. Since 1996, ZhongDe Group has supplied approximately 200 waste incineration plants to 13 provinces throughout China (more than 80 in the past three years.)
Citing decreased demand, Ash Grove Cement Co, the US’s second largest industrial mercury emitter, is suspending operations at its Durkee facility this week. The company has committed to spending up to $20 million to cut its pollution 75 percent by July 2010 using a carbon injection system that would capture mercury in existing fabric filters. That work will go forward despite the plant shutdown.
The American Filtration and Separation Society 2010 show will be held March 22-25 in San Antonio., The show will be co-located with the AIChE Spring National Meeting. Sponsors include: Ahlstrom, Donaldson, Freudenberg Filtration, Hollingsworth and Vose, Met-Pro and Gore.
The December Shanghai Bag Filter Technology and Equipment convention attracted exhibitors offering filter media & bags, fabric filter collectors and baghouse assemblies including: Toray, Andrew Industrial Textile, Kermel, Donaldson Filters, DuPont, Intensiv, and Autel.
Industry experts reported: Total value of the bag filter industry in 2008 was RMB 16,790 (an increase of 40% since 2007.) Total export value in 2008 was 206.4337 million dollars (an increase of 48 percent since 2007.) There are 261 companies in the bag filter industry in China.
Vectren Corp. charged its residential customers more for electricity last year than any other utility in Indiana, according to state regulators, and it is asking for permission to raise those rates even higher. The increase, if approved, is expected to add about $18 a month to "average" customers' bills. In explaining the request, Vectren executives are quick to point to the equipment added to lessen pollution from the company's power plants. Last year the company spent $99 million to put a scrubber on a generation unit at the Alcoa power plant in Warrick County. Jerry Benkert, Vectren vice president and chief financial officer, said Vectren has outpaced other Indiana utilities in its spending on pollution control. That alone has driven the company's electricity bills up by 30 percent in the past several years, he said. Meanwhile, 90 percent of the company's generating units have been equipped to curtail releases of NOx and particulate matter.
PMFG, Inc., parent of Peerless Mfg. Co., has been awarded contracts for three process products projects and two environmental systems projects with a combined value of approximately $30.0 million. The environmental systems orders are for two domestic SCR systems for installation on peaking units.
A 200 MW power plant in Wisconsin has started testing burning biomass. Alliant Energy has been working with the Nelson Dewey Power Plant in Cassville, WI on providing a range of biomass tests. “We'll be burning fuels that have been densified and pelleted,” Bill Johnson, Alliant Energy's biofuel development manager, comments. “That would include wood that is mixed with other materials, as well as agricultural residue materials such as corn stover, switchgrass and reed canary grass.’” Alliant will do the test burns through to November 2010. The power company is trying to determine if the plant's mechanical systems can handle the material, and what impact the biomass materials have on its air emissions.
MET Awarded Two Contracts for FGD Systems
Marsulex Environmental Technologies (MET) has been awarded two new contracts for FGD systems with an aggregate value of approximately $US 150 million. Both projects will commence immediately and will be executed over the next several years. Under the first contract, which is the larger of the two, MET will provide engineering, procurement and construction services for a large North American power producer. The contract calls for FGD upgrades for several coal-fired power plants. The total capacity of these units is more than 1,200 MW. The second contract is for technology, engineering, procurement of critical components and field advisory services for the retrofit of an FGD system for Zaklady Azotowe Pulawy, S.A., a leading chemical producer in Poland. The system, which will utilize MET's proprietary ammonium sulfate FGD technology, will treat flue gas from multiple coal-fired boiler units with equivalent capacity of approximately 300 MW.
Marsulex President and Chief Executive Officer, Laurie Tugman, said, "These new contracts are significant wins for Marsulex. They fit nicely into our schedule as we near completion of our major contract for the Lower Colorado River Authority and demonstrate the continuing strength of our business and technology. Upon completion of the project in Poland, Marsulex will have deployed five commercially proven AS-FGD installations in North America, Asia and Europe."
The Hot Topic Hour January 7, produced some very interesting insights. Bob McIlvaine talked about the importance of fine particulate compared to CO2 emissions in terms of harm. A common metric has been devised that rates all activities with one metric.
The U.S. power plant emission combination of fine non-toxic particulate plus all the fine toxic metal particulate is the equivalent of 700 million tons of CO2. In other words by eliminating these emissions you would achieve as much as eliminating 40 percent of the CO2. The best solution is to upgrade or replace all the existing coal-fired power plants with new supercritical. This will achieve the equivalent of three billion tons of CO2 reduction or 176 percent of the CO2 emissions. All of this is discussed at http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/SURS/subscriber/Default.htm
John Darrow, W.L. Gore, emphasized the consistent good performance of membranes for coal-fired boiler applications. He pointed out that efficiency is not a function of dust cake. This not only assures constant efficiency but also assures constant pressure drop.
Steve Boyd asked John about membrane cracking. Steve is a consultant with extensive experience in China and Hong Kong. John stated that membrane cracking can occur with time but has not been significant enough to affect guarantees. After the session, McIlvaine conversed further with Steve. He related that membrane activity in China is very high. Furthermore there are a number of membrane coaters. Prices relative to non-wovens are lower in China than elsewhere.
Jason Horn, Stock Equipment, and Jan Drotningsvik, Applied Plasma, discussed the ModuPower Switch Mode Power Supply manufactured by Applied Plasma and sold in the U.S. by Stock. The Crawford station of MidWest Generating installed two units in November. Advantages of this power supply are
• Modularity allows for ratings that meet the application and for failure tolerance.
• No insulator is needed at output or soldered connection to leak oil.
• Driver (comparable with converter) has liquid cooled cooling block vs. air cooled….No fins to plug with ash.
• Transformer oil is cooled via liquid to liquid heat exchanger… No fins on HV tank either.
• Less complex topology.
• Capacity can be added/taken from each bus section as needed.
• Use of HV cable instead of bus duct and solid conductor allows power supplies to be located at grade.
Mike Beltran, Beltran, provided coverage of wet precipitators. The company has supplied a number of WESPs for a coal-fired boiler in Calcutta, India. WESPs installed on ore roasters in the mining industry are proving to be highly efficient on selenium and arsenic. These toxic metals pass through dry ESPs and fabric filters as a vapor, but they condense and are captured by WESPs. With the new MACT rules looming this performance on toxic metals will be of interest. Where highly corrosive atmospheres are encountered the shell can be constructed of FRP and the electrodes of high alloy steel.
The entire recording can be heard at: Particulate Choices for High Sulfur Coal 128 minutes
Password: hth913
The bios, abstracts and photos can be viewed as follows:
BIOS, PHOTOS, ABSTRACTS - JANUARY 7, 2010
The individual slides are located in our Particulate Decision Tree as follows:
John Darrow – W.L. Gore
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Products |
Particulate Continuing Decision Process For: Products
Gore Filter Media for High Sulfur Coal Applications: Presented by John Darrow, W.L. Gore. Hot Topic Hour January 7, 2010.
Jason Horn – Stock Equipment
Jan Drotningsvik – Applied Plasma Physics
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Particulate Continuing Decision Process For: Products
ModuPower Switch Mode Power Supply, presented by Jason Horn and Jan Drotningsvik. Hot Topic Hour January 7, 2010.
Michael Beltran – Beltran Technologies
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Particulate Continuing Decision Process For: Products
Wet Electrostatic Precipitator: Presented by Michael Beltran, Beltran Technologies. Hot Topic Hour January 7, 2010.
In a recent E-Alert we cited the need to standardize terms if for no other reason than that the Asians would create their own English. We provided the example of the Asians using Denitration when writing in English, whereas we would use DeNOx.
In the high sulfur coal particulate webinar McIlvaine made a case for decisive classification of particulate options. This starts with standardization of terms. Due to the length of the session, McIlvaine promised to provide the details in the Alert today rather than extend the webinar into a third hour.
Google is a great tool but it declassifies. On the other hand decision making is sequential classification. McIlvaine has coined the term “decisive classification” to cover purposeful classification. This is all explained at http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/Universal_Decision_Tree/subscriber/Tree/DescriptionTextLinks/Decisive%20Classification.htm
Decisive Classification is the creation of a foster family with carefully selected genetic children. McIlvaine explained that industry input is needed to standardize the genetic lineage of particulate control equipment, media, fuel chemistry and any other subject which would influence the product selection. Here is an example of a foster family.
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Pulse Jet |
The specifier needs to find experienced suppliers of PFTE membrane bags for a specific application.
This foster family was created by selecting “air quality” instead of a sibling such as “combustion.” In the genetic fuel chemistry sibling listing low sulfur coal was the selection over high sulfur or high chlorine or low chlorine. Note that in decisive classification only relevant factors are classified. For SCR selection the genetic fuel chemistry family may include arsenic. The pulse jet sibling has been selected over reverse air. The cleaning type was selected as a decisive classification whereas bag shape was not.
We now have a decisive foster family classification which pinpoints a bag requirement in the minimum number of words and phrases. It can be accompanied by a process diagram which further indicates the use of the product. McIlvaine has developed a large number of search options to maximize the ease in finding the right solution. This system can easily be translated into other languages because of the clarity a minimal language use.
The system is only as good as the genetic lineages. Standardization is important. The genetic standards can be linked to aliases, costumed versions, and cousins. This linkage will eliminate a great deal of confusion.
Here are some examples:
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Genetic Child |
Aliases |
Cousins |
Costume |
Parent |
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Fabric filter |
Baghouse |
Dust Collector |
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Particulate Capture |
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Spray Dryer |
Spray Drier |
Semi-dry |
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FGD |
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Circulating Dry Scrubber |
Circulating Fluid Bed Scrubber |
Dry Scrubber |
Gas Suspension Absorber |
FGD |
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DeNOx |
Denitration (but wrong) |
NOx Reduction |
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Air Quality |
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Lignite |
Brown Coal |
Low Rank |
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Fuel Rank |
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Bubbling Reactor |
Sump Scrubber |
Fan Powered Scrubber |
Jet Bubbling Reactor |
Absorber |
Many people use baghouse instead of fabric filter. So baghouse is an alias. Dust Collector generally means fabric filters but could also mean cyclone, e.g. cyclone dust collector. But most practitioners mean fabric filters, so it is a cousin. Particulate control is the most popular parent description. Americans use spray dryers; Europeans use spray drier with the exception of the Germans, they use halb trocken or semi dry. So a cousin can be the identification of a technology by a different characteristic.
With the established ink between genetic standards, aliases, cousins, costumed versions, and parents a search engine can display all the relevant data even if the word does not appear in the text of the material displayed.
Standardization will be both important and to some extent controversial. A supplier of a technology has a big stake in carrying the sibling label rather than the “costumed version.” Some years ago McIlvaine resisted classifying “flameless oxidation" as a separate technology to thermal oxidation. Technically auto-ignition is different than use of a fuel for ignition purposes, but from a practical standpoint there was very little advantage. So it was treated as a costumed version. Wall Street failed to recognize this and there were some significant investment losses. Standardization is a function of usage. Therefore it is desirable to obtain input from as many suppliers and end users as possible. We look forward to any comments. Just email Bob McIlvaine at rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
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