Encyclopedia of Environmental Science and Engineering, Volume I and II

PARTICULATE EMISSIONS 821

The particular regulation shown also accounts for differing

toxicity of certain particulates and allocates the emission

factors of Table 2 accordingly.

Very often permissible ground level concentrations are

set according to other sources in the area. Thus a plant would

be allowed greater emissions in a rural area than in a heavily

industrialized neighbourhood.

Dust fall

A variant on the ground level concentration limit is a dustfall

limit. This basically superimposes a particle settling velocity

on ground level concentration to obtain dustfall rates in weight

per unit area per unit time. This is a meaningful regulation

only for large particles and is not widely legislated at present.

Federal Clean Air Statutes and Regulations

The major federal statutes covering air pollution are PL 88– 206

(The Clean Air Act of 1963), PL 90–148 (The Air Quality Act

of 1967) PL 92–157, PL 93–115, PL 95–95 (The Clean Air

amendments of 1977), and PL 95–190, Administrative stan-

dards formulated by the Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA) are given in the Code of Federal Regulations Title 40,

Chapter 1, Sub-chapter C, with regulations on particulates in

parts 50, 51, 52, 53, 58, 60, 61, and 81.

The EPA has established National Ambient Air Quality

Standards (NAAQS). For suspended particulate matter the

primary standard (necessary to protect the public health with

an adequate margin of safety) is 75 μ g/M^3 annual geometric

mean with a level of 260 μ g/M^3 not to be exceeded more

than once per year. All states have been required to file state

implementation plants (SIP) for achieving NAAWS. It is

only through the SIP’s that existing pollution sources are

regulated.

The EPA requires no specific state regulations for

limits on existing sources, but suggestions are made for

“emission limitations obtainable with reasonable available

technology.” Some of the reasonable limits proposed for

particulates are:

1) Ringlemann 1 or less, except for brief periods

such as shoot blowing or start-up.

2) Reasonable precautions to control fugitive dust,

including use of water during grading or demo-

lition, sprinkling of dusty surfaces, use of hoods

and vents, covering of piles of dust, etc.

3) Incinerator emission less than 0.2 lbs/100 lbs

refuse charged.

4) Fuel burner emissions less than 0.3 lbs/million

BTU heat input.

5) For process industries, emission rates E in lbs/hr

and Process weight P in tons/hr according to the

relationships:

E = 3.59 P 0.62 for P  30 tons/hr.

E = 17.31 P 0.16 for P  30 tons/hr.

“Process weight” includes all materials introduced to the

process except liquid and gaseous fuels and combustion

air. Limits should be set on the basis of combined process

weights of all similar units at a plant.

In considering what emission limits should be estab-

lished, the states are encouraged to take into account local

condition, social and economic impact, and alternate control

strategies and adoption of the above measures is not manda-

tory. It is expected, however, that such measures will become

the norm in many areas.

For new or substantially modified pollution sources, the

EPA has established new source performance standards. The

standards for particulate emissions and opacity are given in

Table 3. Owners may submit plants of new sources to the

EPA for technical advice. They must provide ports, plat-

forms, access, and necessary utilities for performing required

tests, and the EPA must be allowed to conduct tests at rea-

sonable times. Required records and reports are available

to the public except where trade secrets would be divulged.

The states are in no way precluded from establishing more

stringent standards or additional procedures. The EPA test

method specified for particulates measures only materials

collectable on a dry filter at 250°F an does not include so

called condensables.

TABLE 2

Emission effect factors (for use with Fig. 3) (New Jersey Air

Pollution Control Code)

Material Effect factor

Fine Solid Particles

All materials not specifically listed hereunder 1.0

Antimony 0.9

A-naphthylthiourea 0.5

Arsenic 0.9

Barium 0.9

Beryllium 0.003

Cadmium 0.2

Chromium 0.2

Cobalt 0.9

Copper 0.2

Hafnium 0.9

Lead 0.3

Lead arsenate 0.3

Lithium hydride 0.04

Phosphorus 0.2

Selenium 0.2

Silver 0.1

Tellurium 0.2

Thallium 0.2

Uranium (soluble) 0.1

Uranium (insoluble) 0.4

Vanadium 0.2

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