Letter to the Limited Partners from GRNO, the General Partner.
September 16, 1997
As I am sure most of you know, there were no comments received by DHEC during the 30-day public comment period. On September 5, 1997, the required letter was sent to DHEC informing the agency that the planned restart date of the plant will be September 19, 1997 which completes the 45-day legal period.
The current plan is to place the plant into operation the week of September 22, 1997. Paul Woessner has also been working with a local college to start a training program with chemical engineering students as operators for the plant. This will provide hands on training for the students and may well reduce the labor side of operating costs.
As to the permit, we have made the decision to request a permit to operate at a processing capacity of 2,000 gallons per hour rather than the 1,000 gallons discussed earlier. The earlier testing, which resulted in emissions of .9 for each 275 gallons of an allowable 20 ppm, would have the site permitted at an emission level of 6.5 ppm on an allowable 20 ppm at 2,000 gph.
This is not to imply that the existing partnership plant can operate at 2,000 gph, it cannot. As stated in the offering this unit has a design capacity of roughly 600 gph. When received, the higher capacity permit will provide the partnership with growth possibilities. During the waiting period all desired changes have been made to the plant. While, as of the date of this letter, the fume blower has not been installed, it has been shipped.
For GOE this has been a 5 year process; development of the technology, securing the necessary EPA approvals, and now the opportunity to prove the economics and reliability of the system.
(End of letter.)
Total hydrocarbon emissions allowed by the EPA are 20 ppm, a ratio. The unit produced 0.9 ppm, worst case. Bill is saying he is scaling this ratio to 6.5 ppm. I disagree with that interpretation and have a call into GRNO. I say the ratio should stay at the 0.9 ppm number as long as the thermal oxidizer is running within its design specifications. Donna took my message because it's lunch time and Paul and Bill aren't in.
Charles |
