NEWS RELEASE FEBRUARY 2015
More Than 2,000 Major Industrial Air Pollution Projects In the Americas in Each Of The Next Five Years
More than 2,000 projects with investments exceeding $4 million will be initiated each year over the next five years by industrial plant operators in North and South America. Each of these projects is tracked in Industrial Emitters, a publication of the McIlvaine Company.
These major investments are being made by refineries, mining companies and manufacturers of steel, pulp and paper, chemicals, petrochemicals and food. The sources include industrial boilers, dryers, kilns, furnaces, grinding plants and other processes. Sewage sludge incinerators are another source.
The U.S. will be the leading purchaser followed by Canada and Mexico. Brazil, Chile and Argentina are the other countries in the top six. The immediate market in the U.S. is generated by new air toxic standards which affect cement plants, solid waste combustors and industrial boiler operators. The U.S. alone has thousands of industrial boilers. However, only 2,000 will have to make changes to meet the air toxic rules. The largest expenditures will be made by the operators of 532 large electrostatic precipitators now operating in conjunction with coal-fired cogeneration plants. In order to reduce discrete toxic metals, mercury and hydrogen chloride, there will need to be sizable investments.
The number of projects related to new plants and expansions has been growing thanks to the low oil and gas prices in the region. In the U.S., there are new petrochemical and steel projects underway. Mining projects in Canada and Chile will need substantial investments in precipitators, scrubbers and fabric
filters. Refining and sugar are two significant segments in Brazil.
The potential to supply upgrades, repair parts and consumables is substantial. There are more than 300 cement plants in the Americas. They operate more than 10,000 fabric filters. All of them require replacement bags. There are more than 200 waste-to-energy facilities which require ammonia, activated carbon, lime and other consumables.
The 200 refineries in the region are also embarking on new and upgrade air pollution projects. The typical catalytic cracker project has cyclones to capture the large catalyst particles and return them to the process. The cyclones are followed by an electrostatic precipitator for the smaller particles, then a scrubber to capture the SO2. This scrubber is often preceded by an ozone generator which converts the NOx to a soluble form. An alternative for NOx control is selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR). Forced heaters and other refinery sources are also fitted with SNCR.
Industrial Emitters has details on more than 20,000 plants. There are monthly updates which add the new projects, as well as revising and adding email addresses and phone numbers of the plant operators. Recent air permit renewals are also incorporated. Case histories and industry news are supplied in three monthly newsletters (Fabric Filter, Precipitator and Scrubber/Adsorber). For more information on Industrial Emitters click on: http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php/databases/2-uncategorised/93-n032
