IP revives plan to burn tires for fuel
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By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau - Published: October 10, 2007
MONTPELIER Inter-national Paper's proposal to burn tires at its plant on the New York shore of Lake Champlain is largely forgotten in Vermont but it is not gone.
A spokeswoman for the Ticonderoga, N.Y., plant said Tuesday the company is researching the purchase of pollution control devices that might allow the plant to use more solid fuel including chipped-up tires in its power-generating plant.
The possibility that the paper products plant could burn tires to produce power made Vermonters on this side of the lake and downwind from the plant scared and angry.
The state sought unsuccessfully to block the approval by the New York state government for a test burn and groups of citizens rallied against the idea, which was seemingly abandoned after three years when the results of a test burn proved unfavorable last fall.
Now International Paper is talking to vendors that sell pollution-reducing technology it could use to bring emissions from solid fuel into legal compliance, company spokeswoman Donna Wadsworth said.
Last year Vermont urged the company to install one kind of pollution control, an electrostatic precipitator, before the paper manufacturer performed a test burn of fuel made from tires.
Gov. James Douglas had said Vermont might help the company out with the purchase, provided it was done before the test burn. The company declined, however.
That test, originally scheduled for two weeks, was stopped after five days, and analysis of the data collected at that time showed the company would have to install antipollution measures to burn such solid fuels and remain within emissions standards, Wadsworth said.
Now, largely in order to save money on fossil fuels, the company is considering reviving the plan to burn tires or increasing the use of another kind of solid fuel, such as bark chips. That would mean installing technology to reduce pollution from its power-generating boiler, Wadsworth said. The company has not bought or installed the antipollution device yet, she added.
Officials with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which inspects the plant, said no such device has been installed there.
The study of pollution control devices will likely take a year or more, Wadsworth said. After it installs the new device the company may request permission from New York state to do another test burn. Only after the results of that second test burn would the company seek permission to burn such fuels permanently, Wadsworth said.
"Right now we are studying the alternatives, studying the options," she said. Last year's test "is telling us if we want to increase our solid fuel firing to that boiler we probably need to install some additional pollution control device."
Richard Valentinetti, director of the Agency of Natural Resources' Air Quality Division, said the short length of last year's test burn means air samples taken during that period haven't revealed much to Vermont scientists.
"We have seen some increases in some of the metals, but it has been hard to distinguish much," he said. Officials at ANR are now working on completing a report based on the air samples collected.
The amount of airborne zinc oxide particles one component of tires seemed to increase during the test burn but the results are not entirely conclusive, he said.
"They didn't get very far into their trial burn before they abandoned it," said Doug Elliott, an environmental analyst who runs the permitting program for the Air Quality Division. "The trial burn did not give us very much" data.
Since the plan was first proposed more than three years ago, the worry for those on the Vermont side of Lake Champlain has been that small particles of metals especially some potentially hazardous heavy metals would emerge from the smokestacks of the plant and be lofted by prevailing winds into the Green Mountains.
In addition to zinc oxide there may be other types of particulates in the exhaust from burning tires, including soot or carbon, Elliott said. There are also other less common but more worrisome metals potentially in tires besides the relatively benign zinc oxide. They include arsenic, cadmium and chromium, Elliott said. Some of the emissions from burning such fuels could be toxic or could contribute to lung problems for Vermont residents, opponents worry.
State officials say it is impossible to tell this early if International Paper's efforts to install pollution control equipment will satisfy Vermont's concerns with the tire burning project.
Depending on the use and the type of plant, an electrostatic precipitator which gives the particles in the exhaust an electric charge and attracts them to oppositely charged plates or a fabric filter might be more appropriate, Elliott said. In addition, the type of precipitator and the amount of energy put into it could change how effective it is.
The company has not been in touch with ANR about resuming the plans to burn tires, Valentinetti said.
The company will have to repeat a lengthy public hearing and permitting process before it could do another test burn, and do even more before it will use tires as fuel on a consistent basis, Wadsworth said.
"We would involve both states in discussions as we move forward," she said. "We would have to go back through the whole process."
The use of tires, or increasing the amount of bark chips or wood used in the plant's system, would reduce International Paper's dependence on fossil fuels with their volatile prices, Wadsworth said. Roughly 65 percent of the plant's power it uses comes from renewable sources, the remainder is from fossil fuels, she said.
The plant, which employs about 615 people directly, including some Vermonters, produces enough power for its own use to supply a city the size of Rutland, she said.
"It makes absolute business sense and environmental sense as well" to use cast-off tires as fuel, Wadsworth said. It is hard to predict how much the pollution control equipment could cost, but it would likely be between $8 and $16 million, she said.
Any pollution control device that is installed will be designed to make sure the plant can comply with current and predicted air-quality rules, Wadsworth said.
"We are looking at the current standards and any standards that may be implemented over the next few years," she said.
Contact Louis Porter at louis.porter@rutlandherald.com
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