Pollution control economic benefits

Control of atmospheric emissions from petroleum refining can be accomplished by process change, installation of control equipment, and improved housekeeping and maintenance. In many cases, recovery of the pollutants will result in economic benefits. Table 30-26 lists some of the control measures that can be used at petroleum refineries. 

Implementation of cleaner production processes and pollution prevention measures can yield both economic and environmental benefits. The following production-related targets can be achieved by measures such as those described above. The numbers relate to the production processes before the addition of pollution control measures. In sulfuric acid plants that use the double-contact, double absorption process, emissions levels of 2 to 4 kilograms of sulfur dioxide... 

The benefit-to-cost (B/C) ratio is a benchmark that is determined by taking the total present value of all of the financial benefits of an air pollution control project and dividing it by the total present value of all the costs of the project. If the ratio is greater than unity, then the benefits outweigh the costs, and we may conclude that the project is economically worthwhile. 

A successful modem hazardous industrial waste treatment program for a particular industry will include not only traditional water pollution control but also air pollution control, noise control, soil conservation, site remediation, radiation protection, groundwater protection, hazardous waste management, solid waste disposal, and combined industrial-municipal waste treatment and management. In fact, it should be a holistic environmental control program. Another intention of this handbook series is to provide technical and economical information on the development of the most feasible total environmental control program that can benefit both industry and local municipalities. Frequently, the most economically feasible methodology is a combined industrial-municipal waste treatment. 

Thus, a new acid plant within the refinery, built to meet today s standards for conversion efficiency and non-polluting emissions, has an even greater potential economic benefit to the refiner. The fact that a major West Coast (U. S. A.) refiner built (in 1972-1973) and now operates an acid plant within the stringent Los Angeles pollution-control area, that the plant produces fresh acid from H2S and also regenerates spent alkylation acid, attests to this. The capacity of this plant is approximately 275-300 tons/day. 

In addition, pollution control prevention also has economic benefits. Although waste management and recycling in most cases increase the production cost, it pays back the initial investment in the long term. Economic benefits include the amount of reduction of waste produced or treated and disposed, and also in reduction of raw material. 

The economic and many pollution control benefits of densify-ing the solid waste at the generating source have been examined and a design goal of approximately 4,000 for a 400-lb/day system established to achieve a savings of 4.42/ton. 

A number of benefits of using OEC in MSW incinerators have been cited.8 The economic incentives include increased waste-processing capacity, greater thermal efficiency, increased production in a waste-to-energy facility, reduced demand on the exhaust system, and a smaller air pollution control system. Increased capacity may be particularly important for many waste processors which are at their maximum capacity, since it is usually difficult to obtain permits to build new facilities. The environmental incentives include improved ash burnout, lower hydrocarbon emissions, lower CO, greater flexibility and control, and the ability to bum low-heating-value wastes such as dewatered sludge. 

The difficulty of dealing with the economic trade-offs of controlling materials damages from air pollutants is exacerbated by the obvious and direct costs of control and the uncertain economic benefits. This is not a particularly creative notion and affects to one degree or another most environmental rulemakings. 

The overall goals of this interdisciplinary conference were to summarize scientific and policy lessons learned from the attempt to mitigate acid deposition, and to discuss the future of transboundary pollutants and market-based emission control systems. Anthony Janetos, Vice President of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment gave the keynote address providing the conferees with an historical perspective on lessons learned from the acid deposition research experience. In the evening address, Paul Portney, the former President and Senior Fellow of Resources for the Future discussed economical benefits and costs of air pollution... 

Using the BEN model can lead to rather high economic benefits from noncompliance. For example, if a company has failed to install 1,000,000 of pollution control equipment for 72 months, and that equipment would have... 

Estimating Mortality Risk Reduction and Economic Benefits from Controlling Ozone Air Pollution (2008)... 

Any programme to reduce emissions of acid pollutants SO2 and NO to mitigate the effects of acid precipitation and of other associated photo-oxidant pollutants should be based on a consideration of the value of the likely benefits of various control strategies in relation to their costs. The political process will of course also determine priorities and the level of acceptable expenditure in relation to benefits realised. Society may even decide that an overall net economic benefit is not necessary to justify expenditure control. However it is reasonable that in making such decisions it should be aware of ... 

The second problem addressed by property rules involves appropriation, or more precisely, the inability to appropriate returns on common pool resources. Absent an appropriation tool, no single individual retains an economic incentive to invest in common pool resources. Few would purchase or maintain an automobile if they could not control its subsequent use. The market gardener cares for her trees in the spring in anticipation of a harvest in the autumn. Property rules permit a person (the "owner") to appropriate the fruits of their Investment. It is thought that society generally benefits when owners Invest in their property, particularly if duties are imposed to account for negative externalities like pollution. 

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