“Regardless of the impending regulations, routine boiler maintenance is recommended to ensure a boiler continues to operate at peak efficiency year after year,” said Welch Goggins, president and CEO of Cleaver-Brooks, Thomasville, Ga. “To reduce fuel and operating costs, high-pressure steam boilers that do not have a full-time boiler operator should be serviced at least once a month and have a tune-up annually. Maintenance on a heating boiler should be conducted at the seasonal start-up and shut-down, at the minimum.”

The expansion of the NAA applies only to the requirement to submit a Notification of Compliance Status regarding the initial tune-up by July 19, 2012, and it does not affect or apply to other provisions in the Area Source Rule.

Area source facilities subject to the tune-up requirement include existing coal units with heat input capacity of less than 10 million Btu/hour and existing biomass or oil units. For more information about Area Source Rule requirements by fuel type, consult the decision tree available at cleaverbrooks.com/epa.

If a facility emits 10 or more tons per year of any single air toxin, or 25 tons or more per year of any combination of air toxins, it is considered a major source facility subject to Boiler MACT requirements. For more information about the Boiler MACT (also known as the Major Source Rule), visit cleaverbrooks.com/epa.

“Knowing that stricter emissions levels were imminent, our R&D team has been engineering boiler room solutions that minimize emissions while achieving best-in-class efficiency,” said Goggins. “We have a dedicated network of representatives who have the knowledge, experience, and tools necessary to help facilities determine the most cost-efficient way to maintain compliance with the newly enforced regulations.”

Publication date: 8/6/2012