Control technique guidelines

Control Technique Guidelines (CTG) EPA documents designed to assist state and local pollution authorities to achieve and maintain air quality standards for certain sources (e.g., organic emissions from solvent metal cleaning known as degreasing) through reasonably available control technologies (RACT). 

Tier II (adopted in 2000) reduced the VOC emissions by 50 percent. Reductions were achieved by further tightening the VOC content of coatings (at times to levels lower than those stated in the Federal Control Technique Guidelines (CTG)) and increasing application transfer efficiency requirements (at times to levels more stringent than those stated in the EPA Blue Book ). 

In 1978, the EPA established Control Techniques Guidelines (CTG), leading to requests for statements of Reasonably Attainable Control Technology (RACT). The goal of the EPA was to reduce VOC emissions to set limits or to achieve an 85% reduction of existing VOC. VOC levels were to be reduced by one or more of four methods adjustment of LEL (lower explosive limit) of curing ovens solvent scrubbing solvent incineration and carbon adsorption of solvents. 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, September 17, 1979, General Preamble for Proposed Rulemaking on Approval of Plan Revisions for Nonattainment Areas—Supplement on Control Techniques Guidelines, (44 Federal Register 53762). 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Control Techniques Guideline Shipbuilding and Ship Rqrair Operations (Surface Coating), Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, North Carolina, EPA-453/R-94-015, (NTIS no. PB94-156791). 

Industries must reduce emissions from existing facilities by 10% more than the emissions of any new facility opened in the area and impose reasonably available control technology (RACT) on all major sources emitting more than 100 tons per year for the nine industrial categories where EPA has already issued control technique guidelines that describe RACT before 1990. 

By using the combination of specific method accreditation and generic accreditation it will be possible for laboratories to be accredited for all the analyses of which they are capable and competent to undertake. Method performance validation data demonstrating that the method was fit-for-purpose shall be demonstrated before the test result is released and method performance shall be monitored by on-going quality-control techniques where applicable. It will be necessary for laboratories to be able to demonstrate quality-control procedures to ensure compliance with the EN 45001 Standard,3 an example of which would be compliance with the ISO/AOAC/IUPAC Guidelines on Internal Quality Control in Analytical Chemistry Laboratories.12... 

Since 1980, seismic response control techniques have been used as complementary solutions to the existing SFRSs. Despite of their wide-spread applications, design guidelines for structures equipped with supplemental energy dissipation devices (hysteretic and viscoelastic) are still in evolving phases. This study refers to the design... 

Reflectance Spectrophotometry. Because of discrepancies that can occur between strength and shade evaluations in solution and on textile substrates, the latter is often the preferred evaluation technique. In the case of dye manufacture, many dyes are standardized in solution but there is always a final control step where dyeings are prepared. Historically, such dyeings have been evaluated visually for the relative strength and the shade of the dye under test on the substrate, compared to the standard. More and more attempts are being made to do such evaluations objectively. Guidelines for the use of this technique have been pubflshed (43). 

Throughout these guidelines it is argued that when engineering techniques for the design and assessment of process equipment and control systems are supplemented with human reliability techniques, then performance of both the hardware and humans will be optimized. 

---