District Heating: Air-Quality Considerations and the Clean Air Act

摘要

The most significant advantages of a district heating facility arise from increases in overall energy utilization efficiency and the ability to use coal or nuclear fuels as energy sources and thus reduce dependence on more limited energy resources such as oil or natural gas. Commercialization efforts for this technology are likely to encounter some environmental obstacles during implementation phases. Analyses of air quality concerns suggest that commercialization of the district heating concept is likely to reduce regional production of environmental residuals, even though local burdens could increase. Although site-specific production of emissions could increase, the results of air quality modeling efforts suggest that local air quality will not be degraded. On the contrary, analyses suggest that maximum hourly impacts of residential oil combustion are likely to be 10 to 30 times greater than for a district heating plant burning coal. These benefits vary among different cities and between different years. Although air quality benefits could be accrued, the Non-Attainment requirements of the Clean Air Act may, nevertheless, present a barrier to implementation. Using a Regional Reference Energy System for the Middle Atlantic States in 1985 and 2000, effects of district heating on regional energy demand and emission production estimates were examined for the use of coal, petroleum, natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, and new sources. (ERA citation 06:024156)