US Nitrogen in "Process" Change

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

US Nitrogen has informed Tennessee environmental officials that is making an unspecified change in the processes in place at its nitric acid manufacturing facility in Greene County Tennessee.
In a letter sent this week to the state Department of Environment and Conservation, the chemical company asked the agency to put on hold an exemption request it originally filed in 2017 pending the results of what it described as a "process change."
The company had asked for an exemption from a regulation limiting the opacity of emissions from its production in a request first submitted on Dec. 11, 2017. The request followed a series of missteps in the start up efforts at the nitric acid plant that resulted in large visible emissions. One such misstep prompted a response by area emergency management officials.
"Us Nitrogen continues to work on reducing opacity issues during startup of the nitric acid plant," Stephen Wallace of US Nitrogen wrote in the letter to Michele Walker Owenby, director of TDEC's division of air pollution control.
"Currently we are in the process of making a process change during the startup of the nitric acid plant that we believe will significantly improve the opacity situation," the letter continued.
As a result, Wallace continued, the company is asking that the agency "put on hold" its efforts to come up with an amendment to the state's implementation plan to accommodate the company.
He asked that work on revisions to the state plan to comply with the federal Clean Air Act be delayed "until we can evaluate the effectiveness of the changes we are making."
Requests to US Nitrogen for details of the process changes being implemented went unanswered.
The company is a subsidiary of Austin Powder, an Ohio based manufacturer of explosives. Its primary product is liquid ammonium nitrate which is used to produce explosives at other locations.
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