NEWS RELEASE                                    JUNE 2002

Houston Air Pollution Market Soaring

A very big market for air pollution control equipment and monitors is now developing in the eight county region in the Houston, Beaumont, and Galveston (HGA), Texas region. The size and timing of this market, the latest status of regulations, and the names and e-mail addresses of people at each potential purchaser are now available in a new online service from the McIlvaine Company titled “Houston/Beaumont Air Pollution Control Market and Sales Leads”.

There are a large number of refineries, chemical plants, and industrial power generators in the region. The McIlvaine database contains over 1300 individual sources which will need control and monitoring. There are 19 catalytic crackers with Chevron accounting for 5 of them. In addition to existing facilities, there are more than 50 projects in the construction and planning stage. Dow Chemical alone has 6 new construction projects including an ethylene plant.

A number of SCRs are already planned or underway in the region.  BASF plans SCRs for cogeneration plants, incinerators, and reformers. Dow estimates that its costs will be less than $100 million if only 80 percent level is needed.  However, if 90 percent reduction is required, costs could rise to $300 million.

The HGA ozone nonattainment area is classified as Severe-17 under the CAA Amendments of 1990, and therefore is required to attain the 1-hour ozone standard of 0.12 ppm by November 15, 2007.

Regulations have been adopted that require industry in the 8-county area, around Houston, to reduce NO_x emissions by approximately 90 percent. The adopted regulation has a tight compliance schedule with 44 percent of the NO_x reduction required by the end of March 2004. Eighty-nine percent of the NO_x reduction is required by the end of March 2005, with the full reduction required by March 31, 2007. In addition, at the time controls are installed (but not later than March 31, 2005) Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS) must be installed for all sources 100 MMBtu/hour or more.

The regulation has emission limits. However facilities will be allowed flexibility to achieve the calculated total emission limit by achieving greater emission reductions for some units, and less for others under the Cap & Trade program. The cap and trade program will cap the level of NO_x emitted from stationary sources in the HGA area, thus stopping the possible growth of emissions. Any new source will be required to find and retire allowances equal to the amount of their actual NO_x emissions from sources already participating in the cap.

For more information on Houston/Beaumont Air Pollution Control Market and Sales Leads Click Here.