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WTE Biogenic CO2 Reductions and the EPA’s Gas Reporting Mandate: What Does the Future Hold?
WTE Biogenic CO2 Reductions and the EPA’s Gas Reporting Mandate: What Does the Future Hold?
Speaker: Mark Maritato, Environmental Specialist, ecomaine
Session Description: This presentation will explore strategies, including Life Cycle Analyses of WTE, recycling, and composting operations that the waste-to-energy industry can employ to help frame anthropogenic carbon emissions in a better light and stave off future regulatory sanctions. The eSession will use the ecomaine waste-to-energy facility as a representative example and will discuss how biogenic carbon reductions might affect its future.
Currently, ecomaine’s sample results for its municipal waste combustor (MWC) contain, on average, 60% biogenic carbon with the remaining 40% characterized by anthropogenic carbon. As ecomaine begins to optimize the removal of organic material through stepped up recycling efforts and the phase-in of large-scale composting operations, it is plausible that the biogenic carbon fraction will diminish over time, leaving a growing fraction of the less desirable anthropogenic carbon.
In conformance with 40CFR part 98, subpart C stationary fuel combustion sources, WTE plants were required to report 2010 CO2 emissions by September 30, 2011, and annually thereafter by March 31st. A key element of this process involves the quarterly collection of flue gas samples for characterization of mean biogenic CO2 content. While this rule is in its infancy, it is clear that the Agency intends to regulate CO2 emissions, especially the anthropogenic fraction, across all industry sectors.
Based on USEPA’s 2010 Municipal Solid Waste in the U.S. – 2009 Facts and Figures report (EPA-530R-10-012), the organic fraction of municipal solid waste is approximately 62.5% by weight before recycling. The successful diversion of even ½ this material away from ecomaine’s MWC could result in a measurable reduction of biogenic carbon, possibly reversing the biogenic:anthropogenic fraction to 40%:60%.
What this reversal will mean for ecomaine, and the waste-to-energy industry as a whole, will be addressed in this important eSession discussion.
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