Process Innovation
01/27/2025 | Green Innovation
Vigilance has become something of a watchword in the modern industrial sector. Everything from running costs to competitor activity to supply chain cohesion and technological developments are under constant scrutiny in ever-more crowded market sectors. Nowhere is that level of attention more appropriate than in the sort of systems being put into place to safeguard an organisation’s environmental credentials. Backed by a slew of country-specific laws and regulations, more and more are seeing the advantages of effective and relevant emissions monitoring. And it’s a global movement, embracing everything from the formation of India’s Central Pollution Control Board to Australia’s National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting scheme to Untied States’ Clean Air Act and Kazakhstan’s rather more modest Environmental Code.
The European Union has also made a series of pledges via initiatives such as the Industrial Emissions Directive, which aims to minimise pollutants from industrial installations by imposing emissions limits and requiring the use of so-called Best Available Techniques, promoting uniformity across member states.
China, facing significant environmental challenges due to rapid industrialisation has implemented Continuous Emission Monitoring System for key industries which mandate real-time monitoring and discharges, such as sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds from industrial sources, backed by strict non-compliance penalties, Within all of this, the regulation and monitoring of emissions play a pivotal role with CEMS acting as the watchdogs, offering real-time data crucial for assessing and reducing harmful emissions.
Pollution havens aside, research by the Havard Business Review in the US found that global emission levels were uniformly lower for countries with tighter domestic environmental regulations.
Those behind the technology that drives CEMS – and there are plenty within the ACHEMA cohort doing just that – will point to the constant monitoring and analysis of effluent gas streams that result from combustion in industrial processes – in other words, detailed analysis of the composition of gases that come out of industrial chimneys. And that doesn’t just mean the headline greenhouse gas pollutants of CO2 and methane, but many other toxic variants and particulate matter that affect human health, wildlife, water and the environment; the likes of carbon monoxide, ammonia and hydrogen chloride.
CEMS are designed to operate non-stop, even when a process is idle, and measure all required components. And given that there are many types and technologies used for CEM instruments, the most advanced systems can measure the lowest concentration of exhaust gases from chimneys.
Jaques Mulbert, Division President, ABB Measurement & Analytics, feels that, unlike many industrial innovations, the increased demand for CEMS is not driven by a desire for competitive advantage, by regulatory compliance.
But he adds: “They should not be seen as a box-ticking exercise. They deliver real benefits to help inform decision-making and improve the efficiency and sustainability of industrial processes.
“They can also offer safety benefits by providing an early detection system for explosions, leakage monitoring, and filter monitoring. In addition, data generated by CEMS equipment can be used to optimise combustion to reduce fuel and lower emissions, increase plant efficiency and equipment lifetime, and decrease operating costs by providing operators with additional intelligence on process performance.
“Today, the most advanced systems can now measure the lowest concentrations of all exhaust gases from industrial chimneys. When new pollutants become mandatory to measure of emissions limits change, some systems are so sophisticated they can be adjusted by a mere software upgrade.
“The integration of Dynamic QR (DQR) codes, for instance, can reflect the real-time status of a device. When scanned the DQR software pulls updated data and status information from a central unit, which can be in control of several discrete gas analyser modules.
“The DQR codes also provide a health check of performance history, together with access to information like the device’s serial number to enable timely service support. This is particularly helpful for installations that require high availability, remote installations, or installations that will require manual inspection only.”
Rachel Stansel of the calibration system specialist Environics of Toronto Canada, describes CEMS as “user-friendly systems” that make data-monitoring a relatively simple process.
“They’re designed to be easy to use, enabling user to focus on controlling emissions efficiently and without worrying about software issues”, she said. “They are fitted with simple interfaces and data visualization tools that make interpreting data quick and easy, allowing operators to makre informed choices.” This was a view exemplified by Envirotech, a company that has been at the forefront of emissions monitoring systems for over 30 years, throughout the South East and Eastern Asia regions. Elsewhere, Protea, of Cheshire, in the UK have a range of CEMS includes both extractive analyser systems – such as the atmosFIR CEM – or in-situ analyser that measure in-stack.
A specialist in environmental management solutions and an expert in the process industry, ENVEA of China was at Frankfurt in June with solutions for process optimisation, efficiency enhancement and energy saving.
Another was Nederman, a leading Swedish environmental technology company that “protects people, planet, and production form the harmful effects of Nederman Suzhou to supply the latest monitoring and control technology. It will manage and enhance the sales channels for NEO Monitors, provide localized technical support and service, implement marketing strategies to increase brand awareness and promote product adoption for the Chinese market.
The establishment marks a significant milestone on Nederman’s expansion in China. The JCT family has also grown with the recent arrival of their new acquisition; mlu-recordum, the Austrian environmental monitoring solutions specialist and manufacturer of the airpointer, the first compact ambient air analyser system. The acquisition means JCT Analysentechnik GmbH, an already successful manufacturer of gas sampling components for CEMS, is now among the world’s leading manufacturers of compact ambient air analysis systems.
Although CEMS are widely used in industries such as power generation, oil and gas, chemicals, and waste incineration, those generally ahead of the game in terms of maintenance, the latest generation built in automated self-checking features, such as automatic calibration.
One country late to the party in the regard is India, a country long-faced with diverse environmental challenges and struggling to find an effective vehicle for monitoring and regulating pollution control.
CEMS was introduced as recently as 2014, decades behind the likes of Europe and the United States. But progress was slow. After seven years, experts were still reporting that vital data was not of good enough quality to reach the statutory quality thresholds. It was only this summer [2024] that the national verification agency agreed a proper certification framework.
Nivit Kumar Yadav, director of industrial pollution team at Dehli-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) described the certification as a “crucial step in ensuring the quality of CEMS data in facilitating its use for regulatory and compliance purposes.”
Ashish Tiwari, secretary for Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change describes CEMS as “a game changer for ensuring stack emissions compliances”. He added: “ There is a need to develop the first ecosystem that supports CEMS adoption which includes indigenous certification systems, establishment of local calibration labs, policy support to boost domestic manufacturing, green skill development needed for their operation and maintenance and above all its affordability. Incentive on capital costs and leveraging benefits form the green credit programme could also support affordability to small and micro industries,” he said, adding: “Care should be takes not to put the cart before the horse.”
This is a significant step for a country which is widely regarded as one of the most polluted and Dehli ranked the most polluted capital city. Concentrations of particulate matter (PM 2.5) are nearly 10 times higher than those recommended by the World Health Organisation.
In many ways it is a victim of its own success. Air pollution is one of the challenges associated with the sort of development that comes with being one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
It also tends to limit the required urgent response to it. Often, GDP per capita and growth rate are linked to emissions levels, one predicting the other, in the words of the Clean Air Fund which posed the question: how would solving air pollution benefit Indian businesses= Their own repose: a 3 per cent – or $95 billion – increase in GDP.
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