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Air emissions from electroless nickel process tanks

Please advise me on where I may find information on air emissions from solution tanks used on an electroless nickel plating line. There is a great deal of information on the web regarding VOC emissions from solvents but very little on air entrainment of mists or solids from inorganic processes

Thanks for your help!

Steve Lamming
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1996

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I'm aware of very little published info on this subject either. There is some stuff on chromium emissions, due to the MACT standards. But for the rest, all I can think of offhand is two references: "Air Pollution Control of Plating Shop Processes" by W.E. Powers, published in the July '86 issue of Plating & Surface Finishing, and "NIOSH Technical Report, Control Technology Assessment: Metal Plating and Cleaning Operations", U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services document no. 85-102.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

EPA has released a preliminary draft report addition to the AP-42 emission factors (new Section 12.20) which covers electroplating including nickel. I think you can find this on the EPA's bulletin board under the SCRAM subgroup.

Scott Fetter
LMTAS - Fort Worth, Texas
1996

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Thanks for the comments - I checked the draft of S12-20 for AP-42. This deals with chromium electrolplating. While giving some ideas on total emission, it gives little in the way of methodology or calculation methods. The emission factors are empirical and derived from emission measurement. In addition the factors assuming a gas transport mechanism from the electroplating process (current density). What I have is an electroless nickel line with no current used and would like information on the engineering calculations needed to estimate emission.

regards

Steve Lamming
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1996