Most of these additional elements, also called "reductants" will need to be brought into Newport via truck and train shipments, adding additional hazards and dust to the routes taken. No amount of "wetting" to reduce dust emissions will actually stop the dust from being blown around.
So far, nobody has admitted to exactly "how" hundreds of thousands of tons of silica sand will be transported into and out of the proposed plant. Train transportation will be used to bring this down from Canada - but then what? There are no train tracks going to the proposed location. This means it may be off-loaded into truck far closer to town then everybody realizes.
The plant property is actually just 3/4 of mile in a straight line from the edge of town. On top of a hill, where the belching smoke stacks they've promised will have a nice, easy shot over the vast majority of the population that lives here.
Silica sand will also be brought into Newport by hundreds of thousands of tons. The projected lifetime operational capacity of the plant is expected to be 50 years, which will permit in total, millions of tons of silica to be shipped and processed here.
Additional elements such as quartz, wood, limestone, electrodes, wood chips, coal and consumables are also required, and must be transported in, generating their own waste and by-products.
Extremely high level of electrical consumption are required for the smelting operation, on the order of 10 to 12MWh/t. This will be an enormous strain upon power generation and excess available capacity and will likely prohibit other potential industries and businesses from considering Newport as a location in the future.
There is also the cost for electrical grid upgrades, transmission, roads and transformer station required. Despite the bland assurances that none of these costs (millions) will affect other PUD customers, I would be very cautious about accepting these claims.
Once smelting produces silicon, it must be processed again during a crushing / grinding operation which will produce hazardous silica dust. The batching / feeding operations also produce a dust hazard.
Environmental Reductions in Si and FeSi Furnaces
http://www.academia.edu/26781221/Environmental_reductions_in_Si_and_FeSi_furnaces
The following information was obtained from this article link above.
"The main problem related to the environmental emissions for that part of the process, actually is the dust generation during the receipt, discharge and screening of reductant (low ash coal, charcoal, char and/or coke), mainly for the producers who works with charcoal which generate a high level of dust during the raw material handling. One of the biggest concern of carbon source handling are related to health and safety because the screening and receive process of reductant needs to be made under enclosure areas, generating an ATEX (Atmosphere Explosive) zones"
"In the case of Silicon Ore (SiO2) handling, the screening process is the major dust generator. A common method used in some plants is the washing of the ore during the screening process, before feeding to the furnace. The utilization of a washing system eliminates the need of utilization of a dedusting system during the SiO2 screening. In this case the fines will be dried and disposed according to the regulations and the water will be reused. For plants that do not use the washing system, the environmental emission elimination can be done via a simple dedusting collection system containing hoppers, lid fans and a bag house to collect that dust. According to the installation design, the utilization of one of two dedusting systems for the raw materials will be defined. Modern plants design normally considers the installation of one dedusting system for the receipt and discharge system and one for the raw material handling, batching and furnace feeding system."
HiTest has claimed that their proposed processing method will be a "closed-loop system" which is inaccurate. Raw material inputs, discharges, emissions, dust generation and waste products generated are all not a part of a "closed-loop" system. They will in fact, be subjected to a great many variables, including the critical issues of capture, storage, long-term containment, public exposure and transportation.
HiTest has additionally claimed that there will be no waste production. The Submerged Arc Furnace method will produce the following waste on a 3 arc furnace:
There was no mention of ash (fly ash) in the article - but if wood chips are used, then this is 100% likely.
The MicroSilica would have to be processed and shipped from Newport by truck transport, increasing congestion on local roads and highways. HiTest has not admitted to the other gases produced - or where they will go or how they will be handled or how long they intend to store them (if at all). Those smokestacks aren't going to be empty - they're going to filled.
There is significant risk during the processing that SiO can increase tremendously.
"SiO and CO gases that, will anyway find a path to get out from the furnace (even considering the obstruction of the tapping hole). Those gases will react immediately with the outside air (due to the lower thermodynamic stability at lower temperatures) which are exothermic reaction and will surely create heat that could be harmful and increase the gas volume via the SiO2 amorphous generation and CO2 as well. Those particles are environmental emissions that can pollute the plant environmental and give rise to diffusive emissions. Based on the same study mentioned previously, those particles normally are smaller than 2.5μm, making them respirable, and a fraction of these particles is also under 100 nm (Kero, Næss, and Tranell, 2013)."
Workers and residents are at-risk from fugitive emissions and particulates being released by the plant. They're small enough be breathed in and lodged into your lungs.
Pressure increases within the arc furnace fluctuate significantly. During the tapping operation (pouring of refined silicon into casting molds) -
"The tap hole process gases will immediately, as soon as it comes out from the furnace via tap hole, reacts with the outside oxygen from the atmospheric air and the main products generated will be SiO2 (g) and CO2 (g). Those are exothermic reactions and the temperature of the surround sharply increases when the gas volume increase. This is a significant internal pollution source and must be collected somehow, via secondary dedusting systems in the Silicon and Ferrosilicon plants".
The gas velocity could be extremely high - from 10 to 100 meters per second. "Although the main gassing outlet either in Silicon and Ferrosilicon processes happens in the top of the furnace, the tap hole process gassing presents a considerable volume, which represents safety and health risk for the operations, and also environmental emissions risks."
The casting operation contains additional risks and emissions (standard casting or continous casting), elevating dust with the plant. Dedusting designs and equipment are used, but this does not eliminate all of the known hazards (nothing does). Virtually all of the gasses, emission, dust, by-products and waste would need to be 100% contained, captured and transported - accident free, 100% of the time. That's not going to happen based upon current plant design and emission violations committed by this industry (all of them).
Please note as you read this document - the term "minimize" suggest to casual readers that these pollutive elements and gases have no real effect, which is untrue. Minimize simply means to reduce their hazards, it does not mean that they are eliminated at all.
During the Milling, Crushing, Grinding, Screening and Packaging Process "the safety and healthy risks are considerably big and is mandatory to install a protection system."
Workers are at-risk, and so is the surrounding region because the protection system is not fool-proof or all-inclusive. Various dedusting systems are utilized to attempt to capture micro-fine particles and dusts. Collected particulates must be stored and fully contained (indefinitely) either through storage or transportation off-site. The public exposure to these materials continues to escalate as the handling of these materials goes on day and night.
So what's going to happen when "indefinite" becomes "we're done here" (out of business or whatever)? Does anyone honestly think that we're going to get our region cleaned up? That never happens - anywhere, without Superfund status designation (which is what you may be looking at down the road here).
Now here is the kick-you-in-the-teeth you need to know: Taking into account the "equipment, technology, process, procedure, environmental, health, safety and quality risk assessment standpoint", silicon smelting operations rank "VERY BAD" to "BAD" based on the Operational Excellence Diagnostics for Silicon and Ferrosilicon production Viridis.IQ -
So why is Newport choosing to experiment with this technology - from a company that has no experience?
I know that answer and you will not necessary like it or agree with it, but it is the answer that is most likely true. Money - in the right hands, to the right people. They sold all of you out.
We know who "they" are, I'll have more names to add to the list already started here. They're already scurrying around like the rats they are, trying to cover up their tracks and eliminate the growing anger and opposition to this monstrosity. Keep records and keep pushing - it's just getting started.
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