40 CFR § 63.2853 - How do I determine the actual solvent loss?
By the end of each calendar month following an operating month, you must determine the total solvent loss in gallons for the previous operating month. The total solvent loss for an operating month includes all solvent losses that occur during normal operating periods within the operating month. If you have determined solvent losses for 12 or more operating months, then you must also determine the 12 operating months rolling sum of actual solvent loss in gallons by summing the monthly actual solvent loss for the previous 12 operating months. The 12 operating months rolling sum of solvent loss is the “actual solvent loss,” which is used to calculate your compliance ratio as described in § 63.2840.
(a) To determine the actual solvent loss from your source, follow the procedures in your plan for demonstrating compliance to determine the items in paragraphs (a)(1) through (7) of this section:
(1) The dates that define each operating status period during a calendar month. The dates that define each operating status period include the beginning date of each calendar month and the date of any change in the source operating status. If the source maintains the same operating status during an entire calendar month, these dates are the beginning and ending dates of the calendar month. If, prior to the effective date of this rule, your source determines the solvent loss on an accounting month, as defined in § 63.2872, rather than a calendar month basis, and you have 12 complete accounting months of approximately equal duration in a calendar year, you may substitute the accounting month time interval for the calendar month time interval. If you choose to use an accounting month rather than a calendar month, you must document this measurement frequency selection in your plan for demonstrating compliance, and you must remain on this schedule unless you request and receive written approval from the agency responsible for these NESHAP.
(2) Source operating status. You must categorize the operating status of your source for each recorded time interval in accordance with criteria in Table 1 or Table 2 of this section, as follows:
Table 1 of § 63.2853(a)(2)—Categorizing Your Source Operating Status Before September 15, 2020
| If during a recorded time interval . . . | then your source operating status is . . . |
|---|---|
| (i) Your source processes any amount of listed oilseed and source is not operating under an initial startup operating period or a malfunction period subject to § 63.2850(c)(2), (d)(2), or (e)(2) | A normal operating period. |
| (ii) Your source processes no agricultural product and your source is not operating under an initial startup period or malfunction period subject to § 63.2850(c)(2), (d)(2), or (e)(2) | A nonoperating period. |
| (iii) You choose to operate your source under an initial startup period subject to § 63.2850(c)(2) or (d)(2) | An initial startup period. |
| (iv) You choose to operate your source under a malfunction period subject to § 63.2850(e)(2) | A malfunction period. |
| (v) Your source processes agricultural products not defined as listed oilseed | An exempt period. |
Table 2 of § 63.2853(a)(2)—Categorizing Your Source Operating Status On and After September 15, 2020
| If during a recorded time interval . . . | Then your source operating status is . . . |
|---|---|
| (vi) Your source processes any amount of listed oilseed and source is not operating under an initial startup operating period subject to § 63.2850(c)(2) or (d)(2) | A normal operating period. |
| (vii) Your source processes no agricultural product and your source is not operating under an initial startup period subject to § 63.2850(c)(2) or (d)(2) | A nonoperating period. |
| (viii) You choose to operate your source under an initial startup period subject to § 63.2850(c)(2) or (d)(2) | An initial startup period. |
| (ix) Your source processes agricultural products not defined as listed oilseed | An exempt period. |
(3) Measuring the beginning and ending solvent inventory. You are required to measure and record the solvent inventory on the beginning and ending dates of each normal operating period that occurs during an operating month. You must consistently follow the procedures described in your plan for demonstrating compliance, as specified in § 63.2851, to determine the extraction solvent inventory, and maintain readily available records of the actual solvent loss inventory, as described in § 63.2862(c)(1). In general, you must measure and record the solvent inventory only when the source is actively processing any type of agricultural product. When the source is not active, some or all of the solvent working capacity is transferred to solvent storage tanks which can artificially inflate the solvent inventory.
(4) Gallons of extraction solvent received. Record the total gallons of extraction solvent received in each shipment. For most processes, the gallons of solvent received represents purchases of delivered solvent added to the solvent storage inventory. However, if your process refines additional vegetable oil from off-site sources, recovers solvent from the off-site oil, and adds it to the on-site solvent inventory, then you must determine the quantity of recovered solvent and include it in the gallons of extraction solvent received.
(5) Solvent inventory adjustments. In some situations, solvent losses determined directly from the measured solvent inventory and quantity of solvent received is not an accurate estimate of the “actual solvent loss” for use in determining compliance ratios. In such cases, you may adjust the total solvent loss for each normal operating period as long as you provide a reasonable justification for the adjustment. Situations that may require adjustments of the total solvent loss include, but are not limited to, situations in paragraphs (a)(5)(i) and (ii) of this section:
(i) Solvent destroyed in a control device. You may use a control device to reduce solvent emissions to meet the emission standard. The use of a control device does not alter the emission limit for the source. If you use a control device that reduces solvent emissions through destruction of the solvent instead of recovery, then determine the gallons of solvent that enter the control device and are destroyed there during each normal operating period. All solvent destroyed in a control device during a normal operating period can be subtracted from the total solvent loss. Examples of destructive emission control devices include catalytic incinerators, boilers, or flares. Identify and describe, in your plan for demonstrating compliance, each type of reasonable and sound measurement method that you use to quantify the gallons of solvent entering and exiting the control device and to determine the destruction efficiency of the control device. You may use design evaluations to document the gallons of solvent destroyed or removed by the control device instead of performance testing under § 63.7. The design evaluations must be based on the procedures and options described in § 63.985(b)(1)(i)(A) through (C) or § 63.11, as appropriate. All data, assumptions, and procedures used in such evaluations must be documented and available for inspection. If you use performance testing to determine solvent flow rate to the control device or destruction efficiency of the device, follow the procedures as outlined in § 63.997(e)(1) and (2) and the requirements in paragraph (a)(5)(i)(A) of this section. Instead of periodic performance testing to demonstrate continued good operation of the control device, you may develop a monitoring plan, following the procedures outlined in § 63.988(c) and using operational parametric measurement devices such as fan parameters, percent measurements of lower explosive limits, and combustion temperature.
(A) On or after September 15, 2020, you must conduct all performance tests under such conditions as the Administrator specifies to you based on representative performance of the affected source for the period being tested. Representative conditions exclude periods of startup and shutdown unless specified by the Administrator. You may not conduct performance tests during periods of malfunction. You must record the process information that is necessary to document operating conditions during the test and include in such record an explanation to support that such conditions represent normal operation. Upon request, you shall make available to the Administrator such records as may be necessary to determine the conditions of performance tests.
(B) [Reserved]
(ii) Changes in solvent working capacity. In records you keep on-site, document any process modifications resulting in changes to the solvent working capacity in your vegetable oil production process. Solvent working capacity is defined in § 63.2872. In general, solvent working capacity is the volume of solvent normally retained in solvent recovery equipment such as the extractor, desolventizer-toaster, solvent storage, working tanks, mineral oil absorber, condensers, and oil/solvent distillation system. If the change occurs during a normal operating period, you must determine the difference in working solvent volume and make a one-time documented adjustment to the solvent inventory.
(b) Use Equation 1 of this section to determine the actual solvent loss occurring from your affected source for all normal operating periods recorded within a calendar month. Equation 1 of this section follows:
(c) The actual solvent loss is the total solvent losses during normal operating periods for the previous 12 operating months. You determine your actual solvent loss by summing the monthly actual solvent losses for the previous 12 operating months. You must record the actual solvent loss by the end of each calendar month following an operating month. Use the actual solvent loss in Equation 2 of § 63.2840 to determine the compliance ratio. Actual solvent loss does not include losses that occur during operating status periods listed in paragraphs (c)(1) through (4) of this section. If any one of these four operating status periods span an entire month, then the month is treated as nonoperating and there is no compliance ratio determination.
(1) Nonoperating periods as described in paragraph (a)(2) of this section.
(2) Initial startup periods as described in § 63.2850(c)(2) or (d)(2).
(3) Before September 15, 2020, malfunction periods as described in § 63.2850(e)(2).
(4) Exempt operation periods as described in paragraph (a)(2) of this section.