Document jdRqoyrde8eeY9GaxR1ZmzdN

FILE NAME: ZK/L DATE: DOC#: BO/L DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: d:Z^ZZZ pHI LIP w 5 W A IN, EDITOR AUGUST I 949 ESTABLISHED I N I 882 Smoke and Dust Cnnfusion W! 't a ~cause inute will out ~ed b leaper. bout ~ ned Lt IS ""\"1' \\ A !J~II'j'Tl'\L I: Illl.\'j' 1\."0\\ i~ the begin- ..cl-\. llillg uf 1\ j"duIIl, :OU let'" face up tu the existing confusion about wa\'s to cllrh sll1oh, amI rlust from jlll\\'Cr-plant sta("k~. This editorial is not iutended to be critical of anybody in particular, for the confusion is general and includes all of us engineers. It',; safe to say that nobody has yet found a really first-class answer to this national problelll. We don't even understand the health angle. Much has been published about ~nlOke as a menace to health. Yet llO I('~s all ilulllllrill thiln Dr A J Lanza Ichairman, Cuuwti vi 11lllu~trial Health, American .'\Iedical Association) sa: s uf "nlOke, "That it can cause specific diseases or death to any considerable degree cannot be stated in the light of available c\-idence." Hard to bclieve, but there it is, and we hope the MDs will get busy and pin down the facts on this, \\hatever they are. iVIcanwhile, from the plain Iluisance anglc, we knOII- that Illudem cOllllllunities I\OI1't continue to t()l('ralt~ the present levels ?)f sf~k sJlloke and dust. Ire also know that aliI cill" that scts out 011 a white horse with a brass band to clcan up all the dust and smoke will change its tune when the human and dollar costs are k!lown. It's better to succeed IlllJdcrateh in a reasonabl(~ smoke and dust program than to attempt the impossible and accomplish nothing. Well, what is practicable? Many commumtles have had fair success in reducing visible smoke by simple old-line rules based on the Ringlemann chart. The Ringlemann chart lllay be old fashioned and unscientific, but politically it is thc most practical smoke-prevention devicc cI'er invented hecause it is ~ow ER' August 1949 cheap, reqllirp~ lW (,llslh tl'.clill,~. ""'/ I:tl,,-I, lill' oJIender for all to see. Stopping dust is a \'('n' difl(T('liI III a 11 l'r. \Iu~th ) ou call't sce it until it land~ (Ill I (JU[ ladJldn. llwn you can't prove who made it. Urc!ill<lIlCI'S specifying how much dust a stack llIay discharge I'C[ tllOus<lnd pounds of flue gas probabl~ IWH' \ alul' for thl' f('11 large utility and industrial plants that C<ln bear tlw burden of the costly dust sampling. :\s far as tll<' smaller plants are concemed it i" ,'('[lain that such ordinances will becomc dead lett('f~'. "n()ld(~ e\1H'rilIlents," if they llH'an al'llIalh 1I11;I'llrlll!' rlll'l l'lllitled by "US1Jcclt'd I JUlatur~. 11 am l,ud) tllllIb communities will stand the ('ost uf ~llCh snl<Jll-planl dust tests as a routine matter let him gl'l the opinion of practical smoke inspectors. Also remember that a large proportiun uf existing coal-burning installations could nul !lilTt the suggested ASME limitation of O.R') 11. du,1 j'(~r 1000 III of flue gas. Any serious prop""al tflal ',hi" Iw ellfurced Oil a conllllullity-wid(: 1l1l~ic. ("r ail plalll c. large and small, should fa(,(, tlJ(' Lwl 111:<1 ! 11),1 pL!III' \Iould be forl:ed to install dusl coilectll!'. Perhaps the hest ans\\<:r tll dUo'l "!lli,siUIJ 1)1 small plants will be in the sdtiJlg up of cntaill minimum equipment and fuel standards, including the requirement of dust colleelors for cC:'lain fuels and firing methods ill sj)J'cificd ZlIlll', "f Ill(' ('lIlll' ll1unity. Even this is not what you might call a happy solution. There aren't any such in this field. You just take your choice among the availahle evils. The whole problem of power-stack smoke and dust is so important that POWEH will welcome COllllllents from combustion engineers and smoke-inspection authorities. 71