Air Emissions Assessment for a New Oriented Strand Board Plant, 1998 Environmental Conference Proceedings

The manufacture of oriented strand board produces air emissions of organic and inorganic pollutants. Louisiana-Pacific Canada recently completed construction of a new grassroots 328,000 tons per year oriented strand board plant in Minitonas, Manitoba. During commissioning of the plant, the eight major processes comprising the most significant air emissions sources were tested to characterize emissions of: volatile organics including aldehydes, ketones and diphenyl methane diisocyanate; semivolatile organics; trace metals; hydrogen cyanide; filterable and condensable particulate matter; and nitrogen oxides.

This paper describes the plant, test methods used to characterize emissions, and test results. The tests successfully demonstrated that the emissions were well below regulatory emission limits established by Manitoba Environment. In addition, a direct inhalation exposure human health risk screening assessment shows that emissions of selected pollutants are well below levels of concern.