Form R reporting requirements.

A new 24-page booklet goes a long way in making it easier for metalcasters to correctly report their emissions.

Responding to recent concerns, the Casting Industry Suppliers Assn. (CISA) and AFS published a booklet to help foundries report on the uses and releases of binder system chemicals reportable under SARA, Section 313 on Form R.

Titled Form R: Reporting of Binder Chemicals Used in Foundries, the 24-page guide explains terms, illustrates how to estimate releases of binder chemicals and provides valuable data for many different binder systems.

Casting facilities are required to submit a Form R report if all of the following conditions are met:

* the facility has 10 or more full-time employees;

* the facility is included in Standard Industrial Codes 20-39;

* the facility manufactures, processes or uses any listed chemical in quantities equal to or greater than the established threshold in the calendar year. The threshold for casting facilities is 10,000 lb, and 25,000 lb for shops that sell cores to casting facilities.

Form R Glossary

Form R "reporters" first need to know the terms used. Here are three to keep in mind:

% Reacted--The amount of chemical that reacts during the curing and no longer exists after curing.

% Evaporated--The amount of the chemical that evaporates (becomes airborne) during mold- and coremaking.

% Remaining in mold/core--The amount of chemical that remains in its original form in the finished core/mold after curing/reacting.

Jim Elwood, Ashland Chemical, Inc., explains these terms with a baker's analogy. A good example of the % reacted are eggs in a cake mix, which react during baking and don't exist in the finished cake. The % evaporated is the water that evaporates during baking. The % remaining is the water, in form of moisture, remaining in the cake.

Determining Quantities

If a foundry meets the first two requirements for completing Form R, it must then determine if any of the listed chemicals were used in quantities of 10,000 lb or more. Table 1. Determining Pounds of Chemical Used Part I Chemicals

Chemical            %       Pounds      Pounds
                             Used     Chemicals
Phenol             6       400,000      24,000
Trimethylbenzene   2.08    400,000       8,320
Naphthalene        1.98    400,000       7,920
Formaldehyde       0.3     400,000       1,200

Part II Chemicals

MDI               39.95    325,000     129,838
Naphthalene        4.06    325,000      13,195

Table 2. Post-Curing: Phenolic Urethane Coldbox

                  %           %         % Remaining
               Reacted    Evaporated       in Core

Part I

Phenol           90           0              10
Naphthalene      0            50             50

Part II

MDI              99.9         0              0.01
Naphthalene      0            50             50

In this example, a phenolic urethane coldbox binder is used to make cores.

This binder consists of two components, Part I and Part II (Table 1). During the year, the foundry used 400,000 lb of Part I and 325,000 lb of Part II. From the MSDS, foundry officials know that Part I consists of phenol (6%), trimethylbenzene (2.08%), naphthalene (1.98%), xylene (0.44%), formaldehyde (0.3%), cumene (0.16%) and biphenyl (0.08%). Part II consists of MDI (39.95%), naphthalene (4.06%), xylene (0.2%) and biphenyl (0.08%).

Since the percentages of xylene, cumene and biphenyl in Part I and xylene and biphenyl in Part II are below the SARA diminimus level (1% for noncarcinogens and 0.1% for carcinogens), no inventory or further calculations for these chemicals from this binder are necessary. Since the others exceed the percentage diminimus level, pounds of chemical used must be determined. Table 3. Pounds Reacted, Evaporated and Remaining Phenol

reacted      =  (.9 x 24,000 lb)      =   21,600 lb
evaporated   =   (0 x 24,000 lb)      =     0 lb
remaining    =  (.1 x 24,000 lb)      =    2,400 lb

MDI

reacted      =  (.9999 x 129,838 lb)  =  129,825 lb
evaporated   =     (0 x 129,838)      =     0 lb
remaining    =  (.0001 x 129,838)     =    13 lb

Naphthalene (Part I and II combined)

reacted      =    (0 x 21,115 lb)     =     0 lb
evaporated   =    (.5 x 21,115 lb)    =   10,558 lb
remaining    =    (.5 x 21,115 lb)    =   10,558 lb

By multiplying the pounds of binder used during the year with the percent of chemical in the binder, foundries can easily calculate the pounds of each of the remaining SARA candidates.

As long as the binder was the only source of these chemicals, a Form R would be needed only for phenol (24,000 lb), MDI (129,838 lb) and naphthalene (21,115 lb: 7920 lb from Part I plus 13,195 from Part II).

The next step is to determine what happened to these chemicals by looking at the phenolic urethane coldbox process table.

In coremaking, a certain percentage of each chemical is either reacted away in the process, evaporates or remains with the finished core.

The next step is to calculate how much of each chemical reacted, evaporated or remained in the core. This is done by multiplying the pounds of that chemical by the % reacted, evaporated or remaining in the core.

For Form R reporting purposes, 21,600 lb of phenol were consumed in the process, as were 129,825 lb of MDI. There were 10,558 lb of naphthalene released as fugitive airborne emissions.

Still to be accounted for as possible releases are 2400 lb of phenol, 13 lb of MDI and 10,558 lb of naphthalene. These are the quantities of the chemicals that remain in the cores as they went into storage and/or were used in the molds to make castings.

Some of these chemicals may evaporate during storage; be thermally destroyed during casting production; remain in the core and be discarded with the waste sand; or be released during the casting process.