SUMMARY REPORT ON REGIONAL WORKSHOP ON BAT AND BEP
IN FOSSIL FUEL-FIRED UTILITY AND INDUSTRIAL BOILERS
IN RESPONSE TO THE STOCKHOLM CONVENTION ON POPS
Vientiane, Lao PDR, 12-14 December 2007
The meeting was opened by Ms. Monemany Nhoybouakong, Director General,
Environment Research Institute, Water Resources and Environment Administration
(WREA), and then Dr. Mohamed Eisa, Chief of Stockholm Convention and Chemical
Management Unit of UNIDO welcomed the participants and requested to introduce
themselves. Representatives of Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, the
Philippines and Thailand were present. The overview of BAT/BEP guidelines on fossil
fuel-fired utility and industrial boilers was made by Dr. Eisa with Mr. Massimo Gobbi,
UNIDO consultant. The overview was discussed in some depth. Questions were raised on
the chlorine content of the fuel oil and coal and on the quality of water. Clarification was
requested on the oxygen level at the combustion chamber and the influence of boiler size
on the emission factor. A suggestion was made on expanding the discussions on using
biomass fuels (Part III: Source category (e)). It was also suggested to add two columns to
the Table 3 of the guidelines, namely Health benefits and Socio-economic benefits.
After the introductory session the details of dioxin inventory of the power generation
sector and the recommended BAT and BEP action plans for major sector installations
were presented by representatives of the participating countries. The total releases in
power generation and heat industry in the six countries were about 167 g TEQ/year. At
the end of the first day, the country presentations were followed by a discussion session
on different topics such as the use of wastes (spent oil, used tires, animal dung, etc) as
fuel for industrial boilers; PCDD/PCDF inventories based on UNEP Toolkit; use of fly
ash, etc.
The second day of the workshop started with the technical training delivered by Mr.
Massimo Gobbi, UNIDO consultant, on aspects of power sector monitoring of
PCDD/PCDF emissions and associated costs. The capital costs of power generation are
about 5,000-8,000 US$/kW. A 1,000 MW power plant would therefore cost about 5-8
billion US$. Such very high costs would make very unlikely that any modification of the
plant would be made after it has been put into operation. A modification would be
difficult to implement as the manufacturers rely on standardized models, the size and
geometry of the boiler would determine the residence time, turbulence etc. BEP has to be
implemented at users’ level that consists of boiler purchase (technical specifications),
operation and maintenance (efficiency). BAT/BEP implementation takes place at fuel
supply and equipment design level. The fuel supply strategy is very important as a large
power plant consumes millions of tons of fuel per year. The power plant design would be
affected by state or local environmental regulations, air quality standards, emission
limitations, etc. The air abatement system has DeNOx system, electrostatic precipitator
and DeSOx system. As a brain storming exercise, Dr. Eisa raised the issue of boiler
selection. The boiler purchase has different drivers depending on its size. In the
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discussion it turned out that Cambodia and Lao PDR did not have large fossil fuel-fired
power plants or large-size industrial boilers.
Type of boiler
Small
Medium
Large
Drivers governing purchase
Market and prices
Market and design
Design
Decision of purchase
Personal
Personal
Government or private
Capacity building requirements
As a result of the brain storming specific training needs have emerged as follows:
• The representatives of Lao PDR and Cambodia requested UNIDO to organize a
training course for private sector on boilers;
• The participants also felt that training in government environmental regulations
and standards for available boilers and boilers that might be imported in future
would be needed; and
• As POPs is not known at general public level, awareness-raising would also be
required.
The regional action plan for the power generation/fossil fuel-fired utilities and industrial
boilers has 5 outcomes as follows:
• Outcome 1: Adopted guidelines and guidance on BAT/BEP addressing specific
features of industry, common practices in the region and related socio-economic
considerations
• Outcome 2: Pollution prevention measures (cleaner production) applied prior to
introducing BAT/BEP (Annex C, Part V, A).
• Outcome 3: Unintentional POPs baselines/inventories derived from
representative industrial sources and projected at regional scale
• Outcome 4: Established regional coordination of developing human resources
• Outcome 5: Adequate capacity in sampling and analysis of unintentional POP
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