Government bodies are requiring processing companies to monitor the various emissions from their plant stacks and flares to reduce the amount of pollution entering into the atmosphere. Initially the focus was on oil refinery flares; more recently petrochemical and chemical plant flares are receiving attention as potential sources of hazardous air pollutants.
In March of 2020, the EPA signed several Risk and Technology Review (RTR) rules, including National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP): Generic Maximum Achievable Control Technology Standards for Ethylene Production (EMACT). EPA decided that current requirements for EMACT flares are not adequate to ensure 98% destruction efficiency needed to meet standards.
In May 2020, the EPA finalized amendments to the 2003 Miscellaneous Organic Chemical Manufacturing National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), known as MON. This adds monitoring and operational requirements for flares that control ethylene oxide emissions and flares used to control emissions from processes that produce olefins and polyolefins. It also allows facilities outside of this subset to opt into these flare requirements in lieu of complying with the current flare standards.
Discover how process mass spectrometers are ideally suited to monitor flare gas streams from these same processes as they increasingly fall under the spotlight of concerns over hazardous emissions.