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2/13 Boilers, Process Heaters, Commercial/Industrial Solid Waste Incinerators | US EPA

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Last updated on Wednesday, December 26, 2012

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Emissions Standards for Boilers and Process Heaters and Commercial / Industrial Solid Waste Incinerators

Announcements

December 20, 2012 - EPA

finalizes adjustments to air toxic emissions

requirements f or boilers and incinerators.

Learn more

December 2, 2011 - EPA proposes

reconsiderations for boilers and

incinerators, and proposes revisions to the

non-hazardous secondary materials rule.

Learn more

On December 2, 2011, EPA proposed changes to the March 2011 Clean Air Act emissions s tandards for large and sm all boilers

and incinerators that burn solid was te. These s tandards cover more than 200,000 boilers and incinerators that emit harmful air

pollution, including m ercury, cadmium, and particle pollution.

Boilers burn natural gas, coal, wood, oil, or other fuel to produce s team. The steam i s us ed to produce electricity or provide heat.

Process heaters heat raw or intermediate materials during an indus trial process. Boilers and process heaters are us ed at wide

variety of facilities and may stand alone.

EPA's proposed s tandards will control toxic air emis sions from boilers located at large and s mall s ources of air toxics.

These rules are developed under s ections 112 and 129 of the Clean Air Act, two provisions that target toxic air pollution.

Under these sections, EPA is required to set technology-based standards for toxic air poll utants, reflective of levels achieved

by the best pe rforming existing sources.

There are more than 1.5 million boilers in the U.S.

For 86 percent of all boilers in the United States, these rules would not apply, because these boilers burn clean natural gas a t area source facilities and em it

little pollution.

For almost 13 percent of a ll boilers in the United States, EPAs standards would continue to rely on practical, cost-effective work practice standards to

reduce emissions.

For the highest emitting 0.4 percent of all boilers in the United States, including boilers located at refineries, chemical plan ts, and other industrial facilities, EPA

is proposing more targeted revised emissions limits that provide industry practical, protective, cost-effective options to meet the s tandards.

Incinerators burn was te to dispose of it. Some recover energy. EPA has es tablished em issions s tandards for commercial and industrial sol id waste incinerators (CISWI).There are 95 solid waste incinerators that burn waste at commercial or indus trial facilities. These standards wil l reduce emiss ions of harmful pollutants including

mercury, lead, cadmium, ni trogen dioxide and particle pollution.

Boiler and incinerator regulations are closely related because sim ilar units may be considered boilers or incinerators based on whether or not they burn solid was te

materials. EPA is als o proposing changes to how to determine which non-hazardous secondary materials would be considered s olid waste and which would be

considered fuel. This dis tinction would determine whether a material can be burned in a boile r or whether it must be burned in an incinerator. More information

http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/define/index.htmhttp://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/eparules.htmlhttp://www.epa.gov/http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/define/index.htmhttp://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/eparules.htmlhttp://www.epa.gov/airquality/combustion/actions.html#dec11http://www.epa.gov/airquality/combustion/actions.html#dec12