Composites and VOCs: plain and fancy ways to meet emissions rules: one year after EPA's MACT rules took effect, most FRP fabricators have complied via process modifications or low-styrene resins. But some big players have invested in much more elaborate technology.

Plastics Technology, May, 2007 by Grande, Joseph A.

In 1990, the U.S. Congress enacted the Clean Air Act amendment, a law which directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue new limits on emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in many industries, including the composites sector. The EPA directive posed a daunting challenge for composites fabricators that had been accustomed to doing business a certain way for a long time. Now, more than 17 years later, those uncertain and anxious days are a distant memory, as most composites shops now work in full compliance with the EPA rule.

The long and extensive debate between the EPA and the composites industry generated new solutions and practices that have allowed nearly 99% of U.S. composites fabricators to meet the federal environmental requirement,...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.