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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 171 / Wednesday, September 8, 2021 / Proposed Rules
waste, biomass, plastics,1 tires, and organic contaminants in soils and oily sludges to useful products such as energy, fuels and chemical commodities.2 As a result of recent market trends, especially with respect to plastics recycling, the EPA has received several inquiries about regulations under CAA section 129 for solid waste incineration units and the applicability of such regulations to pyrolysis and gasification units for a variety of process and feedstock types. Based on these requests and the differences in language pertaining to pyrolysis among the CAA
section 129 rules,3 the Agency believes that there is considerable confusion in the regulated community regarding the applicability of CAA section 129 to pyrolysis and gasification units. On August 31, 2020, the EPA proposed various revisions to section 129
regulations for other solid waste incineration units OSWI, including a proposal to revise the definition of municipal waste combustion MWC
unit to remove the reference to pyrolysis/combustion units 85 FR
54178. In the proposal, the EPA
indicated that pyrolysis units do not involve the combustion of solid waste but may combust uncontained gases and that the OSWI rule should not apply to such units 85 FR at 54187. The EPA
received significant comments on the proposal regarding the removal of the reference to pyrolysis/combustion units. In light of these comments and
what appear to be on-going questions about the regulation of pyrolysis and gasification units, the EPA has determined that issuance of this ANPRM is an efficient mean for gaining a comprehensive understanding of these units to aid in potential development of future regulations or changes to existing CAA section 129 regulations pertaining to pyrolysis and gasification units. An ANPRM provides an opportunity for the EPA to gather information on the design, types, and sizes of pyrolysis and gasification units, as well as to identify other issues for consideration, including appropriate categorization of pyrolysis and gasification units. The EPA expects that this notice will allow a large and diverse group of stakeholders, including potentially impacted facilities, small businesses, and state, local, and tribal governments, to participate in the data and information gathering process.
Based on data and information received through this ANPRM and other forms of information collection requests, the Agency will evaluate how best to address the pyrolysis and gasification units.
B. Does this action apply to me?
Entities that may be interested in this ANPRM or potentially may be affected by the EPAs evaluation of the information and comments received include, especially, owners and operators of pyrolysis and gasification units that are used to convert solid or
semi-solid feedstocks, including solid waste e.g., municipal solid waste, commercial and industrial waste, hospital/medical/infectious waste, sewage sludge, other solid waste, biomass, plastics, tires, and organic contaminants in soils and oily sludges to useful products such as energy, fuels, and chemical commodities. The categories and entities may include, but are not limited to, municipal waste combustor MWC units as defined in 40
CFR 60.32b, 40 CFR 60.51a, 40 CFR
60.51b, 40 CFR 60.1465, and 40 CFR
60.1940, commercial and industrial solid waste incineration CISWI units as defined in and 40 CFR 60.2265 and 40 CFR 60.2875, OSWI units as defined in 40 CFR 60.2977 and 40 CFR 60.3078;
units excluded from the hospital, medical, and infectious waste incinerator HMIWI standards pursuant to 40 CFR 60.32ef and 40 CFR
60.50cf; non-combustion units, such as thermal desorption units that process solid waste under pyrolytic conditions to recover oil or other marketable products; and other solid or semi-solid material thermal processing units that are currently undefined under CAA
regulations. Table 1 of this preamble lists the entities that are regulated by the current MWC, CISWI, OSWI, sewage sludge incineration SSI, and HMIWI
standards that the EPA believes may be operating or could potentially own or operate a pyrolysis or gasification unit.

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TABLE 1SOURCE CATEGORIES INTERESTED IN THIS ACTION
Source category
NAICS code 1

Examples of potentially regulated entities
Any state, local, or tribal government or commercial owner/operators using a MWC unit.
Any federal government agency using a pyrolysis or gasification unit.
Any educational institution using a pyrolysis or gasification unit.
Any industrial or commercial facility using a pyrolysis or gasification unit.

562213, 92411

Solid waste combustion units disposing of municipal solid waste MSW.

928, 7121

Department of Defense labs, military bases, munition facilities and National Parks.

6111, 6112, 6113

Industry

622110, 622310, 562213, 611310

Primary and secondary schools, universities, colleges, and community colleges.
Oil and gas exploration operations; mining; pipeline operators; utility providers; manufacturers of wood products; manufacturers of pulp, paper, and paperboard; manufacturers of furniture and related products; manufacturers of chemicals and allied products, manufacturers of plastics and rubber products; manufacturers of cement;
nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing; fishing operations.
Private hospitals, other health care facilities, commercial research laboratories, commercial waste disposal companies, private universities.

114, 211, 212, 221, 321, 322, 325, 326, 327, 337, 486.

1 Pyrolysis and gasification units may be used to process plastics, whether virgin or recyclable or recycled. Note that under CAA section 129g5, for example, municipal waste may consist of various materials, including plastics, and the definition does not distinguish between non-recycled or recycled plastics. Some states or municipalities may not regard plastics in the recycling stream as waste, but for our purposes, here, the Agency is interested in information and comments relating to pyrolysis
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and gasification units that may use plastics as feedstock, whether or not the plastics are recycled or recyclable.
2 The EPA has observed that not all pyrolysis or gasification processes produce a seemingly useful product or energy used for purposes other than drying incoming materials for destruction. These processes usually combust the resultant syngas or gaseous products from pyrolysis. The Agency is collecting information and comments on the full
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spectrum of gasification and pyrolysis units, regardless of the outputs.
3 CAA section 129 requires development of maximum achievable control technology MACT
standards for several categories of waste incineration sources for nine pollutants. The MACT
regulations for sources that are not waste incineration sources are developed under the authority and requirements of section 112 of the CAA.

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