Will Industrial Boiler Owners spend $5 Billion or $12 Billion to meet the New Industrial Boiler MACT? – Hot Topic Hour March 21, 2013

 

What are the options and how much is it going to cost? These were the questions addressed by speakers in the Hot Topic Hour yesterday.

 

Bill Liegois, P.E., Vice President and Senior Project Manager at Stanley Consultants Corp., provided an overview of the engineering approach and critical considerations needed to evaluate, select and implement a solution for the Industrial Boiler MACT. Topics included a summary of the Big Three Boiler MACT outcomes – Control, Repower, and Retire.

 

Existing boilers must be in compliance by January 31, 2016. The particulate limits are low due to the fact that particulate is a surrogate for metal HAPS.  Since many plants will inject sorbents ahead of the particulate control equipment the inlet dust loadings will be much higher than presently encountered.  Most boilers will be able meet the CO limits with proper operation and maintenance. Those which do not will be choosing between catalytic and thermal oxidation.

Repowering with a gas turbine is an option. This can be combined with co-generation. Another option is retirement of the boiler and purchase of electricity.

 

Amy M. Marshall, PE at URS Corp., presented “An Evaluation of Boiler MACT Control Costs.” URS Corporation (URS) worked with the Council of Industrial Boiler Owners (CIBO) and its members to develop an estimate of the initial capital cost of complying with the Industrial Boiler MACT for coal, biomass, liquid and process gas boilers and process heaters that will be subject to emission limits under the rule. The  initial cost analysis assumed that each unit would install emissions controls if needed to achieve the Boiler MACT limits and resulted in an industry-wide capital cost estimate of $12 billion (higher than EPA’s estimate of $4.7 billion). A recent refinement to the cost analysis has examined how many units may instead switch from coal or oil to natural gas and what factors sites will consider when considering whether to install controls or fuel switch.

 

Summary of Base Capital Cost Analysis

 

Fuel

Sum of PM Upgrade Cost

Sum of HCl Upgrade Cost

Sum of Hg Upgrade Cost

Sum of CO Upgrade Cost

Sum of Total Capital Cost

Bagasse

$0

$0

$1 million

$49 million

$50 million

Coal

$1.2 billion

$3.3 billion

$71 million

$1.0 billion

$5.6 billion

Dry Biomass

$18 million

$28 million

$5 million

$96 million

$147 million

Heavy Liquid

$1.1 billion

$1.4 billion

$303 million

$4.9 million

$2.9 billion

Light Liquid

$878 million

$1.2 billion

$254 million

$0

$2.3 billion

Process Gas

$0

$28 million

$1 million

$0

$29 million

Wet Biomass

$865 million

$129 million

$6 million

$102 million

$1.1 billion

Grand Total

$4.1 Billion

$6.1 Billion

$641 Million

$1.3 Billion

$12.1 Billion

 

 

The base capital cost analysis was based on a 250 MMBtu/hr boiler. A new fabric filter would cost $7 million and a scrubber $8 million. For coal stokers with CO greater than 500 ppm there would be a cost of $5 million for SCR. The tight CO limits are due to the fact that CO is a surrogate for organic HAPS. Minimizing CO will raise NOx and therefore force controls.

 

The study determined that 470 of the 1,742 units would have to make capital expenditures to meet the rule. This includes 59 units which burn oil. EPA assumed that those units would switch to natural gas.  The study reviewed the cost of switching based on $4.50/MMBtu for plants which already have gas and $7.50/MMBtu for plants which do not have access. They would be charged for the cost of new gas transmission lines as part of the gas purchase contract.

 

With switching, the cost for the Boiler MACT would be less costly but still 42 percent of the units would find it cheaper to install the equipment rather than switch. There was considerable discussion regarding future prices of natural gas. In light of the negative experience recently in Europe many boiler operators will want to assume a price higher than $4.50/MMBtu for gas in the future.

 

Bob McIlvaine provided some details on the industrial boiler companies. Who are they? How many boilers does a facility have? What are the sizes of the boilers? What air pollution equipment is already installed?  He indicated that the database would be populated with information relative to the decisions being made by the boiler owners. Also displayed was the cement tracking database and a number of recent projects for activated carbon, hydrated lime injection and scrubbing.

 

 

Bios, Abstracts and Photos can be seen at: BIOS, ABSTRACTS, PHOTOS - 3-21-13.htm

 

The individual presentations are as follows: