Borden Chemical Fayetteville - Research of VOC Emissions History(2600009)

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Research VOC Emissions History January 14, 2005 (email from Tom McKinney to William Willets) Tom McKinney wrote:

It is now clear why the Borden Chemical emissions of methanol (and VOCs) were so high in 1994 and 1995. (I am highly allergic to dust, but now appreciate why Steven Vozzo insists on keeping our very old and dusty paper files.) The formaldehyde solution used as raw material for the hexamine process contained approximately 1 percent methanol. That methanol was not consumed in the reaction of the process and ended up in distillate that was fed to the cooling tower as make-up water. Since the hexamine plant used approximately 70 million pounds of formaldehyde in 1994, there were nearly 350 tons of methanol (350 tons of VOC) released to the air. In April 1995, they reported engineering changes to eliminate that loss. Therefore, for the 1995 methanol emissions estimate they simply calculated that the methanol loss was one-fourth of the 1994 value.

I went back and looked at my first inspection report for the facility, back in 1999, and found the following comment from the plant engineer about the hexamine process:

"Several years ago this plant produced very high methanol emissions. However, the plant was modified to include an aqueous reverse osmosis system that significantly reduced the large vapor losses from the cooling tower."

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Tom McKinney wrote:

Here is the emissions summary obtained from sorting through Borden Chemical's dusty, old paper files. Please make note of the data shown from the 1994 and 1995 emissions inventories (reflecting significant methanol contribution):

2003: form=9.8 tpy, meth=20.6 tpy, VOC=56.2 tpy
2002: form=3.2 tpy, meth=4.3 tpy, VOC= 8.6 tpy
2001: form=4.2 tpy, meth=3.9 tpy, VOC= 9.1 tpy
2000: form=4.2 tpy, meth=6.4 tpy, VOC=17.5 tpy
1999A; form=4.4 tpy, meth=5.3 tpy, VOC=16.7 tpy
(note 1999A was a revised submittal to correct original)
1999: form=7.8 tpy, meth=4.1 tpy, VOC=13.2 tpy
1998: form=8.0 tpy, meth=4.0 tpy, VOC=13.3 tpy
1996: form=4.7 tpy, meth=4.3 tpy, VOC=10.2 tpy
1995: form=4.7 tpy, meth=83.5 tpy, VOC=89.3 tpy
1994: form=5.3 tpy, meth=329.4 tpy, VOC=335.9 tpy