Emission Control Monitoring
In this blog we examine emission monitoring and reporting, and which tools are best suited to providing accurate data. Having reliable insight into your operation’s emissions is helpful in creating strategies to reduce your carbon footprint.
As Roger Burnison from Sensia explained in a recent presentation, the goal is to gain near real-time insight into fuel, gas, diesel and flare compositions. And from the data on composition the next step is to make calculations on destruction and removal efficiency (DRE) and combustion efficiency.
Though much is said about CO2 in the air, methane should also be taken into account when we talk about harmful emissions.
Emissions
Industrial emissions – for the sake of this blog we’ll only talk about industrial emissions – are the result of moving and combusting hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons, compounds containing both hydrogen and carbon, include, methane, butane, propane and ethane.
For example, a plant producing or refining a product will also have some form of power generation. Both the processes at the plant and the power generation there will produce emissions. These can be in the form of steam or smoke, which can contain particulates, or a flare. Flare size being an indication of how efficiently the hydrocarbons are burning.
To provide proper reporting and accounting of emissions for internal tracking, trading schemes, and government agency reporting, you need to know what emission you are producing where and if these are within preset allowances.
To report accurately on emissions, it’s good to know what types of reporting there are:
- CO2 and CH4 – listed for emission trading and reporting.
- NOx and SOx – tracked for environmental monitoring.
- Particulates – tracked to determine combustion quality or efficiency.
Meeting the continuous improvement demanded by regulators while also keeping in mind public opinion and the requirements from potential investors, there are many things to consider when it comes to calculating and reporting on your emissions.
Calculating emission numbers
We find it’s not uncommon for the process of calculating emissions to be done manually. We also see that emissions are not necessarily calculated for all devices that vent emissions. Sometimes it will be for a few or even just one that’s considered the main emission producing device. With manually tracked and calculated data, there is always the risk of missed data points or miscalculations.
However, reporting demands can be stringent depending on where in the world you operate. Emission trading schemes include legal requirements and can lead to fines for non-compliance. Not having accurate and regular calculations of emissions can mean, for example, that the annual Relative Accuracy Test Audit (RATA test) as performed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or the quarterly Relative Accuracy Audit (RAA) from the same agency, will increase the risk of fines.
The next question then is, how do you accurately measure and calculate emissions across your plant?
Measurement technologies
What we see regularly is that facilities have invested in single source measurement tools that keep tabs on the emissions from just one piece of equipment, such as a compressor or a boiler. Data is collected from a flowmeter that provides information from which to calculate flow of fuel, temperature and mass (dependent on which type of flowmeter is used). Using the manufacturer’s provided specifications on combustion efficiency, you can calculate emissions, allowing for a percentage of uncertainty.
The challenge in producing the required reports then becomes an issue of collecting and collating the reports from the different devices.
Roger explained that Sensia has a solution that brings it all together thanks to a strategic acquisition. In 2022, Sensia acquired Swinton Technology, a company that developed an independent flow computer integrator. Swinton Technology is a market leader in supervisory and surveillance software that has been developed to be applicable to both carbon dioxide and methane measurement and reporting.
Since adding Swinton products to the Sensia portfolio of offerings, they can now offer a metering supervisory computer called TruST. TruST is an end-to-end solution that brings all your flow computer, PLC and CBM data together to deliver real-time monitoring and comprehensive, reliable metering.
EyeMet is another useful application that Sensia offers. It is a metering management information system that provides a high-level overview of your metering system. Combined with TruST, you will be able to monitor emissions from any location with computer access.
These tools will allow you to combine data from different sources across your operations and generate one comprehensive report. It’s even possible to generate reports across multiple regions for a global overview.
Tracking trending emissions across your facility or facilities provides benchmarking and gives insight into the efficiency of production and combustion. It also allows for accurate reporting for CO2 trading schemes, and reporting back to stakeholders and the general public on your progress in CO2 reduction efforts.
To learn more: Measurement (sensiaglobal.com)
Note: EyeMet and TruST are trademarks of Sensia.
