COLUMBUS, Ohio, January 21, 2009 (ENS) – The Ohio EPA has introduced a new online voluntary air emissions credit banking system to make it easier for companies to build or expand in Ohio counties that cannot meet federal air quality standards.

Currently, 32 out of Ohio’s 88 counties do not meet federal standards for particulate matter and ozone.

“The emissions bank can help buyers and sellers of emission credits connect quickly and easily, which is a big plus in today’s fast-paced business environment,” said Ohio EPA Director Chris Korleski.

Under the Clean Air Act, a major emissions source, such as a factory or power plant, cannot construct in a nonattainment area unless it obtains emission reduction credits, also known as emission offsets.

An emission reduction credit represents a permanent, quantifiable, federally enforceable and surplus reduction in air pollutant emission that exceeds the amount of reduction required under state or federal law. It is measured in tons per year.

If a new facility wanted to locate in a nonattainment area and planned to emit 100 tons of carbon monoxide per year, it would need to obtain that amount of reductions, or credits, from another source.

Gavin is the largest power plant in Ohio and has two of the seven largest coal-fired generating units ever built. (Photo courtesy AEP)

It can be time consuming and difficult for companies to find and verify available emission offsets. As a result, they often exclude nonattainment areas when considering where to locate a new facility.

“We hope this will help foster economic activity in nonattainment areas, while still allowing us to improve air quality in these same areas,” Korleski said.

Ohio must meet federal air quality standards for nitrogen oxide, volatile organic compounds, sulfur dioxide, fine particulates, carbon monoxide and lead.

Ohio currently has designated nonattainment areas for the eight-hour ozone standard and the particulate matter 2.5 standard. The entire state is in attainment for sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and lead.

The eight-hour ozone standard is not being attained in areas of Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland-Akron, and Columbus.

The PM 2.5 standard is not being met in: Adams County’s Monroe and Sprigg Townships; Ashtabula County’s Ashtabula Township; Coshocton County’s Franklin Township; and Gallia County’s Cheshire Township.

In December, the U.S. EPA announced designations for the 24 hour ozone standard for fine particle pollution, PM 2.5, which is emitted by diesel engines, power plants, foundries.

“These new designations are a continued alarm to Ohio officials that they must do more to protect public health. Failing to meet the standard for particle pollution means our communities are at risk and are suffering,” said David Celebreeze, director of air and water special projects with the Ohio Environmental Council.

If the state fails to meet the standard, the federal government could withhold funds for highways.

Ohio has submitted plans to the U.S. EPA to lower pollution levels in ozone nonattainment areas. Ohio EPA said in a statement that its goal is to bring these areas back into attainment, improving the areas’ quality of life and the local economy.

The state of Ohio is required to submit to the U.S. EPA a State Implementation Plan that will achieve attainment of federal standards for particle pollution by 2014.

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ARGONNE, Illinois, February 6, 2008 (ENS) – A new method of making one of the world’s most commonly produced organic compounds, ethylene, is going to prevent millions of metric tons’ worth of greenhouse gas emissions, according to federal government scientists.

The technology created by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory is a high-temperature membrane that can produce ethylene from an ethane stream by removing pure hydrogen.

“This is a clean, energy-efficient way of producing a chemical that before required methods that were expensive and wasteful and also emitted a great deal of pollution,” said inventor ceramics scientist Balu Balachandran.

Because the new membrane lets only hydrogen pass through it, the ethane stream does not come into contact with atmospheric oxygen and nitrogen, preventing the creation of a miasma of greenhouse gases – nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide – associated with the traditional production of ethylene by pyrolysis, in which ethane is exposed to jets of hot steam.

“By using this membrane, we essentially enable the reaction to feed itself,” Balachandran said. “The heat is produced where it is needed.”

The new membrane reactor performs an additional chemical trick by constantly removing hydrogen from the stream.

In this way, the membrane enables the reaction to make more ethylene that it theoretically could have before reaching equilibrium.

“We are essentially confusing or cheating the thermodynamic limit,” Balachandran said. “The membrane reactor thinks: ‘hey, I haven’t reached equilibrium yet, let me take this reaction forward.’”

H hopes to extend the project by pairing with an industrial partner who would produce the membranes commercially.

Ethylene has many uses in all aspects of industry. Farmers and horticulturalists use it as a plant hormone to promote flowering and ripening, especially in bananas.

Doctors and surgeons have also long used ethylene as an anesthetic, while ethylene-based polymers can be found in everything from freezer bags to fiberglass.

The world’s ethylene producers manufacture more than 75 million metric tons of ethylene per year, releasing millions of tons of greenhouse gases.

The results of the research will be presented at the 2008 Clean Technology conference in Boston in June. The work was funded by the Department of Energy’s Industrial Technology Program.

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