Measurement and Analysis to Quantify the Contribution of Coal-Fired Utility Boiler Emissions to Ambient PM2.5

The summary for the Measurement and Analysis to Quantify the Contribution of Coal-Fired Utility Boiler Emissions to Ambient PM2.5 grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Headquarters, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Measurement and Analysis to Quantify the Contribution of Coal-Fired Utility Boiler Emissions to Ambient PM2.5: NOTE - Registration Requirements: As part of theDepartment?s implementationof e-Government, WE ARE REQUIRING THE SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS THROUGHGRANTS.GOV. There are several one-time actions you must complete in ordertosubmit an application through Grants.gov (e.g., obtain a Dun and BradstreetData Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number, register with the CentralContractor Registration (CCR), register with the credential provider andregister with Grants.gov). You must complete all the one-time actions in?GetStarted? at www.Grants.gov prior to submitting your initial application.APPLICANTS, WHO ARE NOT REGISTERED WITH CCR AND GRANTS.GOV, SHOULD ALLOW ATLEAST 14 DAYS TO COMPLETE THESE REQUIREMENTS. It is suggested that theprocessbe started as soon as possible.Area of Interest 12 - Measurement and Analysis to Quantify the ContributionofCoal-Fired Utility Boiler Emissions to Ambient PM2.5Epidemiologic studies have shown consistent associations between elevatedambient mass concentrations of PM2.5 and adverse health effects such ascardiovascular and respiratory disease. The nexus between coal-firedutilityboiler emissions, ambient PM2.5 concentrations and composition, andspecifichealth endpoints is still uncertain. Development of future regulations forreducing power plant emissions of PM2.5 and its gaseous precursors (SO2 andNOx) may depend on the extent to which these emissions can bequantitativelylinked to the types of adverse health endpoints indicated by epidemiologicstudies.There are several specific areas where improved methods for characterizingPM2.5 associated with utility coal boilers would provide researchers inotherdisciplines, such as atmospheric modelers and clinical toxicologists, withvaluable tools for addressing the remaining uncertainties. Toward thisend,grant applications are needed to identify novel concepts and methods for:(a)quantifying, via advanced analysis of PM2.5 samples, the contribution ofspecific coal-fired utility boiler emissions to ambient PM2.5 at specificsites; and (b) separating ambient PM2.5 into specific fractions that aresubstantially enriched in and/or depleted of constituents that are commonlyassociated with coal-fired utility boilers, with a view towardconcentratingthe separated fractions for use in subsequent toxicological studies.In order to assess the potential impact of reducing the emissions of PM2.5orits precursors, the percentage contribution of specific anthropogenicsourcesto the overall PM2.5 mass at specific receptor sites must be determined.Thecurrent approach for determining source contributions is to perform?receptormodeling? studies in which chemical mass balances or similar methods areusedto relate the primary PM2.5 chemical compositions of various emissionsourcesto the bulk PM2.5 composition at the receptor site. The accuracy of suchsource apportionment techniques depends on the ability to obtain uniquechemical signatures for each source or source class. The contributions ofbroad source classes (e.g., wood smoke vs. vehicle exhaust vs. coal boileremissions) at a given site can often be determined because of distinctdifferences in the bulk composition of primary PM2.5 from each sourceclass.However, it is much more difficult to use receptor modeling techniques todetermine the relative contributions of sources whose primary PM2.5compositions are similar; for example, even though selenium is often usedas amarker for coal combustion, oil-fired combustion units can also containenoughselenium to create a significant impact on nearby ambient receptors. Thedominance of secondary ammonium sulfate particles in PM2.5 at Eastern U.S.receptor sites can complicate the analysis even further, since bulk sampleanalysis techniques cannot uniquely determine the sources of either theammoniaor SO2 gases that presumably reacted to form the particles.Advanced analytical techniques, when applied to ambient PM2.5 samples andsource samples, may prove to be extremely valuable in source apportionmentstudies. For example, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques havebeenused to determine the percentage of fly ash (i.e., sphericalaluminosilicate)particles in ambient PM2.5 samples. Since spherical aluminosilicateparticlesare known to result exclusively from high-temperature coal combustion, theSEMtechniques provide a more direct estimate of the contribution of fly ash tooverall PM2.5 mass than techniques that rely on bulk compositioninformation.However, accuracy of PM2.5 source apportionment via SEM techniques is stilluncertain, and the application of this approach is still being developed.There may also be other advanced analytical techniques that can be appliedsuccessfully to quantify the contribution of coal-fired utility boilers toPM2.5 at specific receptor sites. Ideally, in cases where more than onecoalplant is affecting a specific receptor site, the technologies would becapableof determining the differences between the contributions of individual coalplants.Therefore, grant applications are sought to develop advanced analyticaltechniques for quantifying the contribution of specific coal-fired utilityboilers to ambient PM2.5 at specific monitoring sites. Concepts andtechnologies proposed under this Focus Area must show promise of being morereliable and more cost-effective than techniques which utilize informationfrombulk chemical characterization. The purpose of these advancedcharacterizationtechnologies will be to provide information for source apportionmentstudies;however, applications to perform source apportionment modeling studies ortodevelop new or improved source apportionment modeling algorithms will notbeaccepted.To link to the master announcement DE-PS26-05NT42472-00, please click thefollowing link:https://e-center.doe.gov/iips/faopor.nsf/UNID/AFDC3E3018D30D1C8525700C005DB010?OpenDocument