AIR POLLUTION MONITORING

& SAMPLING NEWSLETTER

January 2010

No. 363

REGULATIONS

PA Mercury Reduction Rules Do Not withstand Test

Pennsylvania's highest court is upholding a decision to throw out a state rule that required coal-fired power plants to cut mercury emissions beyond federal standards. The rule required an 80 percent reduction by 2010 and a 90 percent reduction by 2015. The state Supreme Court ruled that Commonwealth Court Judge Dan Pellegrini was correct when he called the rule unlawful, invalid and unenforceable. The 2007 rule was challenged by PPL Corp., which owns two coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania. The administration of Gov. Ed Rendell fought industry resistance for approval of the rule, which made Pennsylvania the first major coal-mining state to regulate mercury. However, a federal judge last year required mercury to be restored to a list of hazardous pollutants that Pennsylvania state law prohibits it from regulating.

Minnesota PCA Passes Haze Rules for Northern Parks

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (PCA) has approved new regulations to curb haze over northern Minnesota despite complaints of federal land managers and environmental groups that the rules do not go far enough. The agency’s board voted 7-1 for the measures, aimed at combating haze over pristine areas like Voyageurs National Park, Isle Royale National Park and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness that are protected under federal Clean Air Act rules. The rules may eventually affect coal-burning power plants and taconite plants in Minnesota, as well as pulp and paper mills and other industries that may be required to install new haze-cutting pollution-control technology. PCA officials say the new rules are the first step toward cleaner skies over northern Minnesota, cutting 30,000 tons of the haze-causing emissions annually. The rules must be approved by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which has ordered that air over national parks and wild lands should be haze-free by 2064.

Oklahoma Working on Regional Haze Rules

The Oklahoma Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is on the clock to come up with a proposal to reduce regional haze in federal wildlife areas. DEQ hosted a public hearing to allow comments on the plan, which two of the state’s largest utility companies insist could cost them a lot of money. Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. (OG&E) was the most vocal critic of the plan which officials said could force the utility company to spend more than $1 billion to install scrubbers to clean emissions at its coal-fired power plants. Instead, OG&E wants DEQ to amend the plan so the company can reduce emissions by switching from coal to natural gas to fuel the majority of its power plants.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Great Conference Slated for Shanghai May 5-7

How can you select a conference title more appropriate to what we do? It is titled “The 14th Sulfur Dioxide, Nitrogen Oxide, Mercury and Fine Particle Pollution Control Technology & Management International Exchange Conference.” McIlvaine is working with the various Chinese sponsors to make sure that this conference maximizes its title claim. There is no exhibition but for a nominal price there is the opportunity to provide a presentation, so it is a much more cost-effective way to make the needed contacts.

McIlvaine will be working to help promote the conference with China, as well as working to assure that high quality relevant papers are provided by international experts. McIlvaine will also attempt to maximize networking at the conference. McIlvaine has an office in Shanghai and already publishes “Chinese Utility Plans” in English and Chinese. If you would like more information on the conference, contact Bob McIlvaine at 847-784-0012 ext. 112 or by email at rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com.

Yokogawa to Supply Control System for CC Power Plant in Trinidad and Tobago

Yokogawa Electric Corp.’s subsidiary, Yokogawa Deutschland GmbH, has received an order from MAN Ferrostaal Industrial Projects GmbH to supply an automation and control system for the La Brea Combined Cycle (CC) Power Plant that is being built by MAN Ferrostaal Industrial Projects GmbH and Eisenbau Essen GmbH for Trinidad Generation Unlimited (TGU). This 720-MW power plant is being built near La Brea, a town on the south side of Trinidad Island. Scheduled to be completed in July 2011, the plant will meet the country’s rising demand for electricity.

This new power plant will have six gas turbines, six exhaust gas heat recovery steam generators, two steam turbines and auxiliary facilities. Yokogawa will provide a range of systems and products including a CENTUM^® series integrated production control system to control all of these facilities, the ProSafe^®-RS Safety Instrumented System for detecting abnormal conditions and safely initiating emergency shutdowns, the Exaquantum™ Plant Information Management System for recording and retrieving historical data, and the PRM™ integrated device management software package, as well as engineering and commissioning services.

Enviro Technology to Supply CEMs for 1875-MW Teeside

GDF Suez Energy UK has awarded Enviro Technology a contract to supply five continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMs) for its 1875-MW Teeside combined cycle power station. Enviro Technology has supplied five OPSIS systems to measure NO_x, SO₂, CO and O₂. Associated reporting and data logging software and products have also been purchased.

DECISIVE CLASSIFICATION

Decisive Classification of Monitoring Technology is Needed

Will Americans be able to speak International English? A U.S. news columnist attended an international conference and was surprised to find that even though the conference was all in English, he and his fellow Americans could not understand the speakers. On the other hand, those people who spoke English as a second language seemed to have no problem. He conjectured that we may reach a point where Americans would be the only ones not understanding International English.

His analysis was focused on the pronunciation. But there is a far more serious threat. The definition of English technical words is now being transformed by the Asians. Here is a very obvious example. If you Google the words “Denitration SCR,” you see a display of links to articles in English by Chinese, Korean and Japanese authors. You also see U.S. patent references but all for applications by Asians.

We are helping the organizers of the “The 14^th Sulfur Dioxide, Nitrogen Oxide, Mercury and Fine Particle Pollution Control Technology Conference” to be held next May in Shanghai. Their website is much better than those for other Chinese conferences in terms of English usage. But they do use “denitration” instead of DeNOx or NO_x reduction. The words “denitration” and denitrifcation have been used to describe elimination or reduction of nitrogen compounds. Since DeNOx eliminates oxygen, denitration is theoretically incorrect. But denitration seems to be the word of choice instead of DeNOx in Asia. Since definitions are ever changing and validated by usage it will not be long before denitration is equally acceptable.

If there is confusion at the highest fluency level, the problem is magnified tremendously as we move down the proficiency scale. Many English versions of conference programs and websites of Asian companies have words, phrases, and whole paragraphs that are either incomprehensible or confusing.

As part of its “Free News” site McIlvaine will be tackling this problem with the development of standard terminology in both English and in Chinese. The first step is to establish the standard classification terms in English. Much of this is already started in the five Air Quality Decision trees.

“Decisive Classification” is displayed at

http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/Universal_Decision_Tree/subscriber/Tree/Default.htm.

The classification system is a foster lineage formed with children from genetic lineages. Here are some foster lineages relevant to monitoring.

221112 - Fossil Fuel 化石燃料		Coal-Fired 燃煤	Air Quality 空气质量
CO₂ 二氧化碳	CO₂ Emission Monitoring 二氧化碳排放监测

Protocols 协议

Each column is a word or phrase selected from a genetic lineage. CO₂ is a child of Air Quality. Its siblings are DeNOx, FGD, Particulate, SO₃ and Mercury. This is decisive classification because the division is based on the need for unique technology. Theoretically, FGD which involves SO₂ might be the parent of SO₃ but since scrubbers do not do a good job of removing SO3₃ it needs a separate column.

Using the same decisive logic HCl is not listed as a separate technology. The reason is that the FGD scrubber which captures the SO₂ will also capture the HCL. The opposite is true in classifying air pollution technologies for waste incinerators. HCL would be the major class and SO₂ would be incidental.

221112 - Fossil Fuel 化石燃料		Coal-Fired 燃煤	Air Quality 空气质量
CO₂ 二氧化碳	CO₂ Emission Monitoring 二氧化碳排放监测

CO₂ Monitors 二氧化碳监测器

221112 - Fossil Fuel 化石燃料		Coal-Fired 燃煤			Air Quality 空气质量
CO₂ 二氧化碳			CO₂ Regulations 二氧化碳排放规则
United States 美国	Federal Regulations 联邦法规			EPA Regulations 环保署法规

CO₂ Emission Reporting 二氧化碳排放报告

Electric Generating Units 发电机组

221112 - Fossil Fuel 化石燃料

CO₂ Regulations 二氧化碳排放规则

United States 美国

Federal Regulations 联邦法规 EPA Regulations 环保署法规

CO₂ Emission Reporting 二氧化碳排放报告

Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule 温室气体报告规则

These displays from the McIlvaine CO₂ decisions system also illustrate the way Chinese equivalents are displayed.

Here are some examples from FGD Decisions system.