Air Emissions

 

 Air Emissions

 

Air Permitting – Statement of Qualifications

PES staff compiles air permitting applications for new and modified facilities. Our staff is experienced with an extremely wide variety of manufacturing practices in a multitude of facilities. As a former NC DENR employee, Mr. March wrote over 150 air permits for quarries, chemical plants, cement plants and furniture, plastics, and electrical components manufacturing facilities. As an industrial environmental consultant for over 30 years, he has conducted environmental permit projects in 15 states.

 

Permitting Activities:

  • Applicability of Regulations                         
  • Determination of Emission Rates                                                                                                
  • Calculation of Annual Emissions                                                                                  
  • Negotiation of Permit Conditions    

 

 

 

Services / Capabilities Include:

  • Developing site-specific emissions factors based on chemical engineering mass-balance techniques or from source testing using the PES mobile laboratory.
  • Determining control efficiency of specific air pollution control devices.
  • Annual VOC emission calculations, recordkeeping, and reporting to DENR.

 

Special Skills:

  • Use AERMOD air toxics modeling to determine whether new processes or raw materials will trigger new or more stringent permit emission limits.
  • Developing ‘Intent To Construct’ packages to allow partial construction of new air pollution sources and control devices before a permit is issued.
  • Capture efficiency evaluations.

Indoor Air – Statement of Qualifications

 

PES staff conducts indoor air testing.  These evaluations quantify the concentrations of solvents and/or particulate matter in industrial manufacturing workplaces for OSHA compliance. Our staff’s experience includes OSHA evaluations for solvents from degreasing, printing, coatings, electroplating, plastic manufacturing, metal fabrication, and brake shoe manufacturing using approved NIOSH testing methodologies.

 

Indoor Air Testing Experience includes:

  • Conducted area ‘engineering’ tests to determine the origin of chemical odors or fogs in a workplace.  Area ‘engineering’ tests identified two problem areas. Follow-up tests measured the effectiveness of mitigation measures.  Pollutants measured incleded degreasing and coating solvents, chrome, and oil mist. 

 

  • Measured chrome and specific Volatile Organic Compounds in the air around an electroplating bath. Evaluated air flow rates in the ductwork and calculated face velocities to compare to design values for slotted pick-up hoods. PES also calculated the total chromium Allowable Mass Emission Rate according to the MACT rules at 40 CFR 63.342 and 63.344, which cover testing and performance standards for chromium electroplating control devices.

 

  • Developed engineering mitigation strategies for building contaminants considering ventilation systems, air filtration systems, air treatment systems, and capture efficiencies. Evaluated Permanent Total Enclosures for capture efficiencies for air permit annual inventory reports. Erected a 192,000 cubic foot PTE around a printing press to evaluate VOC capture and ducting to control devices.
  • Conducted engineering evaluations of mass transfer rate to air from specific processes. Considered ventilation rates (air changes per hour) and mass flux rates to calculate potential solvent concentrations in workplace air for OSHA.

Emission Testing – Statement of Qualifications

PES staff conducts air pollutant emission testing to demonstrate compliance with existing permit conditions or federally mandated emission limits. Our staff’s experience includes conducting emission test projects in fifteen States and two territories.  Projects span a variety of industries including power generation, chemical manufacturing, pulp and paper production, brake shoe manufacturing, wood furniture, asphalt production, wire coating, hazardous waste incinerators, and quarries. 

  • PES uses its emission testing experience of many years to assist clients to plan and conduct engineering and regulatory compliance  testing projects.

Emission Testing Experience includes:

  • Relating manufacturing process conditions to the results of source testing efforts.  This can result in emission factors that are less conservative than those of AP-42.
  • Conducting evaluations of ventilation duct work to determine whether new processes or raw materials will be transported to the air pollution control device.  These techniques can also be applied to Capture Efficiency evaluations.