BIOMASS HUB

POWER-GEN Worldwide reports that the Biomass Power Association (BPA), a group of 80 plants in 20 states, voiced their concerns over the EPA’s new Boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standards proposed rule during a June 8 teleconference from Washington D.C.

The proposed MACT standards would classify biomass boiler units, conventionally considered multi-fuel boilers, as incinerators and would be subject to new emission limits for mercury, hydrogen chloride, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and dioxin.  The new proposed ruling is originally part of the Clean Air Act of 1990.

BPA President Bob Cleaves said that boilers used by industrial, commercial, and institutional facilities use various fuels and the fuels are used to generate various forms of energy such as steam, heat and electricity to be used in manufacturing or the generation of power that is sent to the grid.

If the new rule is enacted, Cleaves believes that 100 percent of boilers in the U.S. will have to do more work emitting less pollutants even though they are currently well controlled. Early estimates have shown that it could cost the biomass industry up to $7 billion to comply with EPA’s new standards.

Cleaves said that the EPA should adopt rules that are both health based and achievable or there is no future for biomass technology in the U.S.  The end result of this rule is that EPA is going to require what we think will be very, very expensive technology, if in fact technology can be installed to achieve levels for these air emission standards.

Early indications from BPA’s members are that the standards are probably unachievable if using existing technology, and certainly unachievable if you apply any measure of economic rationality.

As for new plants being developed, BPA thinks that if the MACT ruling is enacted, all development will be halted.  Using the state of California and biomass specifically as an example, Cleaves said that without biomass plants in the state, the agriculture waste being used at biomass plants would be burned in an open fashion or diverted to landfills, which could cause more methane and unregulated particulate emissions.

EPA will issue a final ruling after a 45-day public comment period that began on June 7.

More on the EPA’s MACT standards’ effect on the biomass industry.