Owner/Client
Cemex, Inc.
Location
Louisville, KY
CEC Services
- Air Emissions Testing
Owner Objective
Cemex, Inc. is an international corporation and one of the largest Portland cement manufacturers in the U.S., with 12 operating plants. The EPA imposed a new rule on Portland cement manufacturers that required the installation of particulate monitors on stacks to monitor particulate emissions.
Cemex hired CEC to perform annual compliance stack testing to ensure its plants are operating within their operating permit limits. Cemex needed to install high-efficiency bags in its baghouses, but the emissions were so low that a reasonable set point limit on the particulate monitor could not be achieved.
CEC Approach
To help achieve a reasonable set point limit, CEC worked with Cemex to develop a method that would inject particulate into the stack to increase its emissions during the stack test, which enabled a higher set point on the particulate monitor. CEC also wrote a test protocol describing how the particulate injection system
would be operated. The protocol was presented to the local agency and accepted as an alternate test method for particulate.
The Cemex plant passed all its compliance stack tests, and the test data provided by CEC was accepted by the local agency. Providing this data for Cemex allowed
the company to continue its manufacturing process without permit modifications or changes in production.
