June 17, 2007 by Walter Schneider.

High Plains/Midwest AG Journal

Recent cattle problems linked to by-product feeds

Missouri

An area cattle herd recently had three yearlings go down in a short period of time.

The veterinarian’s diagnosis was polioencepholomalacia or PEM. The condition is also referred to as brainers. PEM is a noninfectious neurological disease that is related to thiamine deficiency.

“The cause of the deficiency is not always clear, but does seem related to abrupt ration changes. High sulfur levels in the feed and water are also implicated,” said Eldon Cole, livestock specialist with University of Missouri Extension.

The symptoms are many and varied. They may include restlessness, diarrhea, muscular twitching, hard breathing, blindness or star gazing and circling. Death may occur if not treated promptly….(Full Story)
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See also: Breakthrough in ‘miniature’ cattle case; Tests prove sulphur feed poisoning, and Sulfur in Beef Cattle Mineral Nutrition

Posted in Pollution: Health Issues, Emission Incidents & Issues | Print | No Comments »

June 14, 2007 by Walter Schneider.

‘Gorilla’ revealed

Dallas company plans to build oil refinery
By Josh Verges

ELK POINT [South Dakota] - A Texas energy company looking to build what it calls an environmentally friendly oil refinery outed itself Wednesday as Union County’s “Gorilla” project.

….The project [by Hyperion Resources Inc. of Dallas] would refine 400,000 barrels of oil into low-sulfur gasoline and diesel fuel each day, enough to serve South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska, said Richard Benda, state tourism and development secretary.

The refinery would be the first built in the country since 1976 and comes at a time when politicians are looking to sever the marriage to Middle East oil….

Hyperion plans to pipe in crude oil from Canada, but how they’d do it is uncertain.

A Canadian firm, TransCanada, is planning a pipeline that would move 435,000 barrels of crude oil per day [to] South Dakota by 2009. Trans-Canada spokesman Jeff Rauh said Wednesday that the pipeline is not related to Hyperion, and the two companies have not met….

The refinery would be the “most environmentally sound energy center in the United States,” protecting air and water quality and producing ultra-low sulfur gasoline and diesel, the company said. Water used to cool the plant - reported by project planners to be 12 million gallons daily - would be returned to the Missouri River cleaner than it is extracted, Phillips said…. (Full story, more stories on the same subject)

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Note by folc.ca:
No one in that or in any of the related articles mentioned what will be done with the waste sulphur the new refinery will produce.  Exports of sulphur by the US were 822,000 tonnes in 2004 and are forecasted to increase to 1.5 million tonnes in 2010, while exports of sulphur from Canada to the US were 2.1 million tonnes in 2006 and are forecasted to decrease to 400,000 tonnes in 2020.  The impact of the new refinery on those import and export figures is not reflected in the numbers. (More detailed waste-sulphur market figures — 1.7 MB PPT file)
A barrel of oil has a volume of 159 litres.  The prohibition on storing waste sulphur in blocks in the US dictates that Canadian synthetic crude oil must be shipped after having been desulphurized.  That means that for every barrel of synthetic crude oil shipped to the US roughly 7.95 litres or 16.7 kg of sulphur will be produced and require disposal in Canada.
The shipment of an additional 400,000 bpd to South Dakota will cause 6,678 tonnes of sulphur to be produced in Canada, with the requirement to either sell that daily volume of sulphur into the saturated world market (a clear impossibility) or to store that much additional sulphur each day.  The only other alternative would be to stop the production of synthetic crude oil.  Quite clearly, that won’t happen.

Posted in Emission Incidents & Issues, World Sulphur Glut, Sulphur Logistics, Ultra-Low-Sulphur Diesel | Print | No Comments »

June 1, 2007 by Walter Schneider.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

EPA Announces Substantial Reductions of Sulphur in Diesel Fuel for Non-Road Diesel EquipmentRefiners will begin producing low-sulfur diesel fuel for use in locomotives, ships, and nonroad equipment (those used in industries such as agriculture and construction). Low-sulfur diesel fuel must meet a 500 parts per million (ppm) sulfur maximum. This is the first step of EPA’s Nonroad Diesel Rule, with the eventual goal of reducing the sulfur level of fuel for these engines to meet an ultra-low standard (15 ppm) to enable new advanced emission-control technologies for engines used in locomotives, ships, and other non-road equipment….

These reductions in NOx [nitrogen oxides] and PM [particulate matter] emissions from non-road diesel engines will provide enormous public health benefits. EPA estimates that by 2030, controlling these emissions would annually prevent 12,000 premature deaths, 8,900 hospitalizations, and one million work days lost. (Full Story)

Posted in Pollution: Health Issues, Community & Industry, Nitrogen-Oxides, Emission Incidents & Issues, Ultra-Low-Sulphur Diesel, Sulphur-Dioxide | Print | No Comments »