Motor Repair Impact on the Environment – US EPA

What is the impact of motor repair on the environment? On your company’s carbon footprint? On your children?

The US EPA identified the act of burning out a motor (referring to it as incinerating) results in significant emissions. This is reported in the 40 CFR Part 60: “Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources and Emission Guidelines for Existing Sources: Commercial and Industrial Solid Waste Incinerator Units: Proposed Rule.”

Motor repair organizations and others have attempted to stop the ruling, which was going to be delayed due to severe lobbying by those organizations by 15 months, in effect killing it. A Federal Judge has stated that the ruling must take place by February 21, 2011, as the ruling was supposed to be addressed in 2000, and there would be no more appeals.

The argument against the ruling is purely related to the costs to install emission reduction equipment and reporting requirements that larger incinerators are already required to use. None of the opponents have argued or supplied data refuting the amounts and types of emissions from the burnout ovens, as noted in the court case.

The US EPA and Federal Courts cited numerous studies which identified unusually high rates of cardiovascular disease, asthma, and childhood mental disorders (including autism) in close proximity to burnoff ovens due to high levels of ash and heavy metals that are emitted. It is noted that a decrease of such conditions occurred in areas near the larger incinerators following the installation of emission-reducing equipment from the original US EPA rulings.

In addition, the reduced efficiency from increased core losses and other effects from poorly repaired electric motors causes and increase in energy consumption which is directly related to increased greenhouse gas emissions by the motor owners. Basically, when selecting a ‘cheap’ repair, you not only get poor reliability, but also have a negative impact on the environment and your carbon footprint.

Recently, an argument was presented that a study by the motor repair industry upon itself (yes, you read that right) identified that there were no negative impacts and, oh by the way, it was OK to crank those burnout ovens up to higher temperatures. The only benefit of this is for the shop owner as it decreases oven time. In my response I noted that the people involved were also the same people who insisted on an allowable 20% INCREASE IN CORE LOSSES THROUGH THE BURNOUT PROCESS BEFORE HAVING TO INFORM THE MOTOR OWNER in the repair standard IEEE Std 1068-2009.

Be cautious when selecting a motor repair vendor. See if they are capable of performing rewind processes that DO NOT include burnout ovens!!