Lately, we have been getting a lot of comments and questions regarding the EPA's Boiler MACT rules. This is mainly due to the confusion surrounding the regulations and how they'll apply to different facilities. One of the most popular questions we get is:
"How do I calculate my boiler emissions?"
This is no easy task. When it comes time to report, calculating emissions is one of the biggest time drains there is, not necessarily because the formulas you need to use are overly complex, but simply because there is so much data to collect, manipulate, convert, record, and report.
Even if you have just one boiler, you may need to calculate emissions for a substantial number of hazardous air pollutants. The time commitment it could take to calculate the air emissions from many different types of boilers located across several facilities can be intimidating.
In order to calculate the emissions from a single boiler source, the EPA uses the following equation:
Where:
- A is the total amount of fuel used in the boiler
- EF is the emission factor for the specific HAP for which you are calculating emissions
- ER is the emission reduction efficiency value of your existing control technology for the source of emissions in question
- This value is divided by 100 and expressed as a decimal
Note that the equation above is only useful when an emission factor is measured in lbs/ton. If it’s not, you will need to use a modified version of the base equation depending on the type of boiler you use, the fuel you burn, and the emission factor you are using.
To make it easier for you, ERA has prepared a free step-by-step guide detailing how you can calculate all of your boiler emissions by yourself. Our guide contains a complete list of the variations of the above formula, sample calculations, instructions for finding the data needed to perform the calculation, and tips on reducing the hassle of doing the work yourself.
The eBook also summarizes the EPA's latest NESHAP/MACT rules, effective as of December 5th, 2022. All 34 revised emission limits are listed in detail.
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