This paper discusses the work and results to date leading to the demonstration of the corona destruction process at pilot scale. The research effort in corona destruction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and air toxics has shown significant promise for providing a valuable contribution to critical U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and national goals of reducing the health effects associated with exposures to hazardous air pollutants. The corona destruction technology could be especially useful in future years in helping industry meet the residual risk requirements of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Since 1988, EPA has conducted research in the area of corona destruction of VOCs and air toxics. EPA's interest in corona destruction of molecular species started with modeling of a point-plane reactor for destroying toxic organic compounds. EPA's goal is to develop a technology capable of controlling low concentration streams at low capital and operating costs. The purpose of this work is to develop an industrial scale corona reactor capable of efficiently and cost-effectively destroying VOCs and air toxics at ambient temperature and pressure. Results show that corona destruction is a promising control technology for many VOC-contaminated air streams, especially at low concentrations. Cost comparisons are presented for corona destruction and conventional control devices, carbon adsorption, catalytic incineration and thermal incineration.
Styrene is a designated hazardous air pollutant, per the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. It is also a tropospheric ozone precursor. Fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) fabrication is the primary source of anthropogenic styrene emissions in the United States. This paper describes an empirical model designed to predict styrene emission factors for selected FRP fabrication processes. The model highlights 10 relevant parameters impacting styrene emission factors for FRP processes, and helps identify future areas of FRP pollution prevention (P2) research. In most cases, the number of these parameters with greatest impact on styrene emission factors can be limited to four or five. Seven different emission studies were evaluated and used as model inputs.
Research Triangle Institute and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted several projects to measure hydrocarbon emissions associated with the manufacture of fiberglass-reinforced plastics. The purpose of these projects was to evaluate pollution prevention techniques to reduce emissions by altering raw materials, application equipment, and operator technique. Analytical techniques were developed to reduce the cost of these emission measurements. Emissions from a small test mold in a temporary total enclosure (TTE) correlated with emissions from full-size production molds in a separate TTE. Gravimetric mass balance measurements inside the TTE generally agreed to within ± 30 % with total hydrocarbon (THC) measurements in the TTE exhaust duct. Pure styrene evaporation tests served as quality control checks for THC measurements and generally agreed to within ± 5 %.
INTRODUCTIONHydrocarbon emissions from the manufacture of fiberglassreinforced plastics (FRP) contribute to volatile organic compound (VOC) and hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions in the workplace and the environment. In the FRP open molding process, a spray gun is used to apply a polyester resin gel coat to a mold, and then a spray gun or nonatomizing equipment is used to apply a polyester resin and fiberglass laminate to the cured gel coat. Styrene and methyl methacrylate are emitted as the gel coat and the
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