Nikkei MC Aluminum seeks to add furnace in Indiana

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) has received an application from Nikkei MC Aluminum America Inc., a secondary aluminum smelter in Columbus, Indiana, to add a natural-gas-fired 40-metric-ton reverberatory furnace to the facility. If approved, the facility would have four furnaces.

A spokesman for the IDEM says Nikkei MC Aluminum also requested to keep its existing sourcewide raw material throughput limit through the reverberatory furnaces of 80,855 tons per 12-consecutive-month period.

The new furnace would be equipped with a baghouse for particulate control and would be exhausting out of a new stack. This new furnace is identical to the source’s existing 40-metric-ton reverberatory furnace.

Before receiving a permit to install the furnace, the company has applied for a revision to its Federally Enforceable State Operating Permit (FESOP). If approved by IDEM’s Office of Air Quality (OAQ), the proposed revision would allow Nikkei MC Aluminum America to make certain changes at its existing source.

The IDEM notes that Nikkei MC intends to construct and operate new equipment that will emit air pollutants; therefore, the permit contains new or different permit conditions. In addition, some conditions from previously issued permits/approvals have been corrected, changed or removed, the IDEM adds. The corrections, changes and removals may include Title I changes (e.g., changes that add or modify synthetic minor emission limits).

IDEM has reviewed Nikkei MC Aluminum’s preliminary application and has developed preliminary findings, consisting of a draft permit and several supporting documents, which would allow the applicant to make the change.

A copy of the permit application and IDEM’s preliminary findings are available at www.in.gov/ai/appfiles/idem-caats.

The company was issued its first FESOP Aug. 13, 2008, for a stationary secondary aluminum production plant in Columbus. May 25, 2016, the OAQ received an application from Nikkei requesting the addition of a natural gas-fired reverberatory furnace.