AQW 11246/17-22

Mr John Blair
Alliance Party
South Antrim

Tabled Date: 30/11/2020
Answered On Date: 05/01/2021
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs for his assessment on the impact the gasification plant, situated within Belfast’s Harbour Estate, has on air quality levels in the surrounding areas.

Answer:

The NIEA currently regulate the Full Circle Generation gasification plant under Pollution Prevention and Control (Industrial Emissions) Regulations (NI) 2013. As part of their permit application the operator must demonstrate that emissions to air from the plant would not have any detrimental impact on the air quality in the surrounding environment using air dispersion modelling software. The operator demonstrated this by modelling the impacts from the plant in combination with the predicted background levels, which assumed that the plant would operate continuously at its maximum throughput in order to simulate the “worse case” scenario. This is a conservative approach to model emissions from industrial plants.

The results of the modelling submitted by the operator under the “worse case” scenario did not breach any of the Air Quality Objectives (AQO) for any of the agreed pollutants. However, unlike all other pollutants the Nitrogen Oxide(s) projected emissions were not deemed to be ‘insignificant’ as they were greater than 1% of the Long Term AQO (ie. >0.40 g/m3 - annual mean).

After carrying out further air dispersion modelling for the plant, NIEA set an emission limit value of 170mg/m3 in the permit for Nitrogen Oxide(s) which was 15% below the mandatory limit of 200mg/m3 for incineration plants, set out in Annex VI of the Industrial Emission Directive (IED), which ensures that even in the ‘worst case’ scenario, the air quality impact from emissions of Nitrogen Oxide(s) have been deemed to be ‘insignificant’.

The reduced emission limit value for Nitrogen Oxide(s) gives the Department confidence that the emissions from the Full Circle Generation will not have any discernible effects on air quality in the local environment.