New Source Permitting and the Conversion of a Kraft Recovery Boiler Furnace to a Multi-Fuel Power Boiler, 1998 Environmental Conference Proceedings

Jack W. O’Grady - Bowater Newsprint - Calhoun Operations
Steven R. Moore - Rust Environment & Infrastructure, Inc.

This paper provides an overview of the process of permitting the conversion of a kraft recovery furnace into a multi-fuel power boiler under the New Source Review (NSR)/Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program. This paper will focus on the first step of a NSR/PSD permit application for the multi-fuel boiler, which is determination of the net emissions change resulting from the boiler modification.

There are several steps necessary to properly determine the net emissions change. These steps include determination of existing actual emissions, estimation of potential future emissions, defining the contemporaneous emissions period, and identifying which emissions changes are creditable under the PSD program. This paper will describe how each step of the PSD netting determination was completed.

The modification involves several sources at the mill. The mill has an existing kraft recovery furnace which will be modified to become a multi-fuel power boiler. The multi-fuel power boiler will be a bubbling bed design capable of burning bark, woodwaste, primary clarifier dewatered woodwaste (sludge), and tires. Two existing wood refuse boilers will also be permanently retired, since the multi-fuel boiler will be large enough to replace the entire capacity of both bark boilers.

The multi-fuel boiler will be capable of burning all the bark and sludge currently burned in the bark boilers, and all the additional sludge currently sent to the mill landfill. The multi-fuel boiler will also burn tires, reducing the amount sent to landfills across the Southeastern United States.