EPA Extends Compliance Deadline Concerning Reduced Emissions for Miscellaneous Organic NESHAP

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). As major emitters of hazardous air pollutants, the chemical processing industry (CPI) has a lot of work ahead to meet requirements for Miscellaneous Organic NESHAP, more commonly known as the MON rule. Over the last couple of years, CPI producers have waited for official news from the EPA on when they would be required to reduce certain hazardous miscellaneous organic chemical (for example – toluene, xylene, methylene chloride, hydrogen chloride, and methanol) emissions and to what level. The MON rule deadline was originally scheduled for November 2006, but due to the number of plants that as of yet still need to move toward compliance, partnered with the guidelines that needed to be revised, the EPA has delayed the compliance deadline until May 2008. With these regulations being implemented, the EPA has reported that this ruling could reduce the hazardous air pollutant emissions from miscellaneous organic chemical producers by an estimated 70% from a baseline of 24,200 tons a year.

Industrialinfo.com is tracking over $574 million in emission reduction projects with scheduled construction starts from 2005 through 2008. Due to the original November 2006 deadline, over $155 million of scheduled emissions projects were slated to have begun construction in 2005. Activity continues to be strong in 2006, with over $118 million scheduled to begin construction in 2006. The number of compliance projects for 2007 and 2008 is expected to increase substantially prior to the May 2008 deadline.

The extended compliance date is not the only thing that is changing with the MON rule proposed ruling. There will be changes to equipment leak monitoring, wastewater requirements, batch process vent and process condenser requirements and also changes to record keeping and reporting requirements.

One question the EPA will have to answer is a clear definition of what a condenser is and whether it is considered a process condenser or an air control device. It is expected that wastewater emissions monitoring devices for recording and storing data will remain consistent with monitoring devices for tracking other emissions. Also, some polymer finishing operations could be exempt, but only if they meet certain specified conditions.

Whether chemical producers choose to move forward with plans to meet emission mandate requirements early or postpone them, it is clear that it is not only the larger CPI producers that will be affected by the MON rule, but the smaller ones as well.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a Marketing Information Service company that has been doing business for over 23 years. IIR is respected as the leader in providing comprehensive market intelligence pertaining to the industrial processing, heavy manufacturing, and energy-related industries throughout the world.