TRI Pollution Prevention Report for BLUE LINE CORP and Nitric acid

Facility ID: 78220BLLNC3443E

Facility Name and Address:
BLUE LINE CORP
3443 E COMMERCE ST
SAN ANTONIO, TX 78220

Parent Company:

Industry: Other Basic Inorganic Chemical Manufacturing (325180)
Chemical: Nitric acid

Production Related Waste Management for Selected Chemical

lchemid=0007697372

Waste Management Comparison - 2017

Pollution Prevention Activities for Selected Chemical

Reporting Year	Section 8.10: Methods to Identify Activity	Section 8.11: Optional Pollution Prevention Information*
2022	Barriers: B3-Barriers to P2 B3 - Concern that product quality may decline as a result of source reduction. Barriers: B7-Barriers to P2 B7 - No known substitutes or alternative technologies.	Barriers to P2: B7 - No known substitutes or alternative technologies. - Blue line does not have a substance that would clean as effectively without hindering the quality of the product, as most products are made to customer specifications, or damaging equipment not suitable for another cleaning agent such as hydrochloric acid. Barriers to P2: B3 - Concern that product quality may decline as a result of source reduction. - Nitric acid is the basis for cleaning the equipment used in batch production. It is used to remove impurities and contaminates that would lower the quality of the product or even make the product unacceptable for Blue Line's customers. With this in mind, it makes reusing nitric acid less feasible unless the nitric is still free of impurities or is within a customer's acceptable limits of contaminants in product. If nitric is free of impurities, it is reused in a batch or transferred to another tank for cleaning. Tanks are cleaned to make sure we were readily available for any orders that came in, if orders are not already lined up.
2021	Barriers: B3-Barriers to P2 B3 - Concern that product quality may decline as a result of source reduction. Barriers: B7-Barriers to P2 B7 - No known substitutes or alternative technologies.	Barriers to P2: B7 - No known substitutes or alternative technologies. - Blue line does not have a substance that would clean as effectively without hindering the quality of the product, as most products are made to customer specifications, or damaging equipment not suitable for another cleaning agent such as hydrochloric acid. Barriers to P2: B3 - Concern that product quality may decline as a result of source reduction. - Nitric acid is the basis for cleaning the equipment used in batch production. It is used to remove impurities and contaminates that would lower the quality of the product or even make the product unacceptable for Blue Line's customers. With this in mind, it makes reusing nitric acid less feasible unless the nitric is still free of impurities or is within a customer's acceptable limits of contaminants in product. If nitric is free of impurities, it is reused in a batch or transferred to another tank for cleaning. In 2021, orders were still limited (similar to 2020) and nitric was used to clean often between processes, as only some orders were lined up and planned our like in a typical year. Tanks were cleaned to make sure we were readily available for any orders that came in.
2020	Barriers: B3-Barriers to P2 B3 - Concern that product quality may decline as a result of source reduction. Barriers: B7-Barriers to P2 B7 - No known substitutes or alternative technologies.	Barriers to P2: B3 - Concern that product quality may decline as a result of source reduction. - Nitric acid is the basis for cleaning the equipment used in batch production. It is used to remove impurities and contaminates that would lower the quality of the product or even make the product unacceptable for Blue Line's customers. With this in mind, it makes reusing nitric acid less feasible unless the nitric is still free of impurities or is within a customer's acceptable limits of contaminants in product. If nitric is free of impurities, it is reused in a batch or transferred to another tank for cleaning. In 2020, orders were severely limited and nitric was used to clean after every process, as orders were not lined up and planned our like in a typical year. Tanks were cleaned to make sure we were readily available for any orders that came in. Barriers to P2: B7 - No known substitutes or alternative technologies. - Blue line does not have a substance that would clean as effectively without hindering the quality of the product, as most products are made to customer specifications, or damaging equipment not suitable for another cleaning agent such as hydrochloric acid. Other Environmental Practices: Recycling - Blue Line has steps to recycle nitric acid from one tank cleaning to the next. This cuts down the amount of fresh nitric acid having to be used and it still cleans well. By using classifications for batches, the nitric acid of the higher purity batch tank cleaning can go into a tank that will have a lower purity batch. Also, the nitric acid is tested for impurities so that it may go into another tank that needs cleaning if little to no impurities are present.
2019	Barriers: B3-Barriers to P2 B3 - Concern that product quality may decline as a result of source reduction. Barriers: B7-Barriers to P2 B7 - No known substitutes or alternative technologies.	Barriers to P2: B3 - Concern that product quality may decline as a result of source reduction. - Nitric acid is the basis for cleaning the equipment used in batch production. It is used to remove impurities and contaminates that would lower the quality of the product or even make the product unacceptable for Blue Line's customers. With this in mind, it makes reusing nitric acid less feasible unless the nitric is still free of impurities or is within a customer's acceptable limits of contaminants in product. Barriers to P2: B7 - No known substitutes or alternative technologies. - Blue line does not have a substance that would clean as effectively without hindering the quality of the product, as most products are made to customer specifications, or damaging equipment not suitable for another cleaning agent such as hydrochloric acid. Other Environmental Practices: Recycling - Blue Line has steps to recycle nitric acid from one tank cleaning to the next. This cuts down the amount of fresh nitric acid having to be used and it still cleans well. By using classifications for batches, the nitric acid of the higher purity batch tank cleaning cango into a tank that will have a lower purity batch.
2018	Barriers: B3-Barriers to P2 B3 - Concern that product quality may decline as a result of source reduction. Barriers: B7-Barriers to P2 B7 - No known substitutes or alternative technologies.	Barriers to P2: B7 - No known substitutes or alternative technologies. - Blue line does not have a substance that would clean as effectively without hindering the quality of the product, as most products are made to customer specifications, or damaging equipment not suitable for another cleaning agent such as hydrochloric acid. Other Environmental Practices: Recycling - Blue Line has steps to recycle nitric acid from one tank cleaning to the next. This cuts down the amount of fresh nitric acid having to be used and it still cleans well. By using classifications for batches, the nitric acid of the higher purity batch tank cleaning can go into a tank that will have a lower purity batch. Barriers to P2: B3 - Concern that product quality may decline as a result of source reduction. - Nitric acid is the basis for cleaning the equipment used in batch production. It is used to remove impurities and contaminates that would lower the quality of the product or even make the product unacceptable for Blue Line's customers. With this in mind, itmakes reusing nitric acid not feasible unless the nitric is still free of impurities.
2017	Barriers: B3-Barriers to P2 B3 - Concern that product quality may decline as a result of source reduction. Barriers: B7-Barriers to P2 B7 - No known substitutes or alternative technologies.	Barriers to P2: B7 - No known substitutes or alternative technologies. - Blue line does not have a substance that would clean as effectively without hindering the quality of the product, as most products are made to customer specifications. Other Environmental Practices: Recycling - Blue Line has steps to recycle nitric acid from one tank cleaning to the next. This cuts down the amount of fresh nitric acid having to be used and it still cleans well. By using classifications for batches, the nitric acid of the higher purity batch tank cleaning can go into a tank that will have a lower purity batch. Barriers to P2: B3 - Concern that product quality may decline as a result of source reduction. - Nitric acid is the basis for cleaning the equipment used in batch production.It is used to remove impurities and contaminates that would lower the quality of the product or even make the product unacceptable for Blue Line's customers. With this in mind, it makes reusing nitric acid not feasible unless the nitric is still free of impurities.
2016	Barriers: B3-Barriers to P2 B3 - Concern that product quality may decline as a result of source reduction. Barriers: B7-Barriers to P2 B7 - No known substitutes or alternative technologies.	Other Environmental Practices: Recycling - Blue Line has been formulating steps to re-use nitric acid for cleaning in between tanks that are going to be used for similar products. This has reduced amount of nitric used overall, even if a small percentage of Blue Line's overall nitric usage. Barriers to P2: B3 - Concern that product quality may decline as a result of source reduction. - Nitric acid is a the basis for cleaning equipment that is used in batch production. It is used to remove impurities and contaminates that would lower the quality of the product or even make the product unacceptable by Blue Line's customers. Barriers to P2: B7 - No known substitutes or alternative technologies. - Blue Line does not have a substance that would clean effectively while not hindering the quality of the product, as most of the products are made to the specifications of the customers.
2015	Barriers: B3-Barriers to P2 B3 - Concern that product quality may decline as a result of source reduction. Barriers: B7-Barriers to P2 B7 - No known substitutes or alternative technologies.	Barriers to P2: B3 - Concern that product quality may decline as a result of source reduction. - Nitric acid is necessary to clean equipment used for batch production. It is required to remove contaminants that would lower product quality, and cause products to not be acceptable to Blue Line's customers. Barriers to P2: B7 - No known substitutes or alternative technologies. - Nitric acid is a necessary raw material for many of Blue Line's products.
2013		Other Barriers to Source Reduction - Nitric acid is used as a raw material for production. If the amount of nitric acid used was lowered it would negatively impact the business.
2012		Other Barriers to Source Reduction - Nitric acid is used as a raw material. Reducing the amount of nitric acid would mean the amount of final products would also be reduced.

*Classifications of Optional Pollution Prevention Information shown in brackets are provided by EPA.

TRI Pollution Prevention Glossary

The Waste Management Hierarchy

The waste management hierarchy established by the Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) guides waste generators toward the best options for managing wastes. The preferred option is to prevent pollution at its source, but for waste that is generated, the preferred management methods are recycling, followed by burning for energy recovery, treatment and, as a last resort, disposing of the waste.

Source Reduction includes activities that eliminate or reduce the generation of chemical waste.
Recycling includes the recovery of a toxic chemical in waste for reuse.
Energy Recovery includes the combustion of toxic chemicals in waste to generate heat or electricity.
Treatment includes the destruction of a toxic chemical in waste.
Disposal or Other Releases includes toxic chemical quantities entering the environment.

The PPA requires facilities to provide the following details about each chemical they report to TRI:

A breakdown of production-related waste managed. This includes all amounts of the chemical released directly to the environment or otherwise managed as waste, other than waste generated by one-time events not associated with normal production processes (e.g., fires or remedial actions).
A production ratio or activity index to provide context for reported toxic chemical quantities. For example, if a chemical is used in the manufacture of refrigerators, the production index would track the number of refrigerators produced and could be used to help gauge how much of the chemical is being released per unit of production.
Any newly implemented source reduction activities, reported using "W-codes" (e.g., "W41: Increased purity of raw materials")

Facilities may also provide optional Pollution Prevention Information describing their source reduction, recycling, or pollution control activities.