Variance Approved For Ash Grove Cement Company

Variance Approved For
Ash Grove Cement Company

In July 2004, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) approved a variance which will allow the Ash Grove Cement Co. to burn tires in addition to coal at its Louisville cement kiln over a 60-day period. (A variance is usually a limited and temporary suspension of a rule.)

Ash Grove normally burns coal for fuel in the cement-making process. The purpose of the proposed tire burning, or “trial burn,” is to conduct a series of performance tests to determine the feasibility of burning tires as fuel. In the trial burn, varying percentages of tires will be added to coal to determine the most effective fuel mixture.

Ash Grove will be required to comply with all emission limits established in its air quality operating permit during the trial burn. DEQ is requiring the company to test for the presence of, and determine the quantity of, specific hazardous air pollutants, including metals.

DEQ received Ash Grove’s variance request in May 2003. The request was revised by Ash Grove in February 2004. Ash Grove requested permission to install equipment for feeding and burning whole tires in the facility’s ACL and Humboldt kilns.

In February and May 2004 DEQ held public informational meetings in Louisville to discuss the Ash Grove trial burn. DEQ staff provided information about the trial burn process and related air quality issues to approximately 175 people. Answers to the many questions raised at the two meetings were compiled and posted on the department’s web site.

If Ash Grove decides to burn tires as fuel on a permanent basis, the company will be required to request a modification to its operating permit. DEQ would conduct an extensive review and analysis of Ash Grove’s permit modification application. Following the department’s preliminary decision to approve or deny the application, DEQ would accept public comments on its draft permit decision for at least 30 days. During the comment period, the public would have the opportunity to request a hearing on the Ash Grove proposal.

“Overall, the information I have reviewed tends to indicate that tires can be used as fuel in an environmentally sound manner,” DEQ Director Mike Linder said. “With the proper restrictions in place, the 60-day trial burn would give us actual facility information to determine whether that is true of tires used at the Ash Grove facility.”

DEQ has contacted other states regarding the use of tires as fuel and found that there are 25 states with cement kilns permitted to burn tires. Information about some of these kilns is posted on the DEQ website.

As of mid-February 2005 Ash Grove had not set a date to start the 60-day trial burn. When the trial burn is conducted, DEQ will provide a schedule of planned test burns, and will post the results on its website: www.deq.state.ne.us.

Article by Amy Callahan and Brian McManus