TDEC Gives Swift OK to US Nitrogen Permit Changes

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Tennessee environmental officials have quietly and swiftly approved a series of permit changes to accommodate US Nitrogen's  requests stemming from the company's recent start up problems at its $200 million Midway facility.
Records of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation show changes were approved to four of the chemical firm's key permits, including operation of a nitric acid manufacturing facility.
The attempted startup of the acid plant produced a large orange plume that hung over the 500 acre site and was visible for miles. US Nitrogen has acknowledged the attempted Aug. 23 startup resulted in emissions in excess of state limits.
The amendment requests were submitted in a series of letters from company plant manager Andrew Velo to Michelle Owenby, the director of TDEC's air pollution branch.
Affected are the permits for the nitric acid plant, the carbon dioxide liquefaction plant and the anhydrous ammonia operation.
The approved changes also allow US Nitrogen to startup the nitric acid plant under controlled conditions before a Selective Catalytic Reduction process has been made operational. The SCR system is designed to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions to the atmosphere.
In requesting the permit changes Velo told TDEC that due to the delays caused by the startup problems it would be impossible for the company to collect and report required emissions data by the original deadlines.
"It is physically impossible to complete and report the results" by the original deadlines, Velo wrote.
In the carbon dioxide liquefaction plant the permit amendments increase the maximum water usage from 2000 gallons per minute to 2400 gallons per minute. TDEC also approved the use of an additional venting site in the operation.
In yet another change TDEC agreed to extend the liquefaction plant permit for another year to Dec. 31, 2017. It had been set to expire at the end of this year.
In the nitric acid plant the revised permit gives US Nitrogen 180 days to collect and submit monitoring data. That amendment had been submitted Sept. 2.
In the ammonia plant the revised permit allows the company to begin startup efforts before the Selective Catalytic Reduction equipment is operational as long as only 15 burners are used during that phase. The amendment states that with the limited use of burners, US Nitrogen will be able to meet the existing hourly limit on nitrogen oxide emissions.
The final amendment is for the cooling towers and it extends from 60 to 180 days the deadline for US Nitrogen to submit the results of required monitoring reports.
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