Turnkey Approach to MACT Compliance for Louisiana-Pacific Corporation

Roaring River, North Carolina

TRC provided a fixed-price turnkey approach that resulted in a flexible team and innovative system that successfully met the regulatory requirements.

The National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Plywood and Composite Wood Products (PCWP) facilities, more commonly known as the PCWP Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rule, requires PCWP facilities to reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), including acetaldehyde, acrolein, formaldehyde, methanol, phenol, and propionaldehyde.

For Louisiana-Pacific Corporation’s (LP’s) Roaring River mill, this rule required meeting emissions limitations for HAPs from process units through one of the available compliance options. This mill was the only operating wet-wet hardboard production facility in the United States, which presented unusual challenges when it came to developing a compliance strategy that would be technically feasible and cost-effective.

Upon initial evaluation, LP Roaring River determined that the cost of installing add-on emission controls would be $17 million. The LP-TRC team explored several alternatives and ultimately settled on the option which involved using emissions averaging to partially control both the digesters and the bake ovens.

TRC’s engineering and regulatory staff developed air pollution control system concepts and a regulatory strategy that would not only meet regulatory requirements, but do so with a capital investment and ongoing operating cost that would keep the mill competitive.

TRC commenced engineering immediately and was substantially completed within six months. When the USEPA deferred the PCWP MACT compliance deadline by 12 months, however, LP made the decision to suspend the work as well.

When construction activities resumed, TRC got the project moving quickly again without significant impacts to cost or quality and maintained the project’s schedule and budget.