April 1st 2022
Ad: Process optimisation to meet net zero air quality targets
Increasingly industrial site operators need accurate data to report emissions and have a reliable understanding of their carbon footprint. This not only helps with meeting their net zero goals but also enables them to determine site efficiency. With this analysis, they can improve site functionality, harness operating savings, reduce carbon footprints and cut health & safety risks.
As a global leader for environmental services, SUEZ recognizes the urgency to deliver professional services and implement tangible solutions to address the impacts of climate change. They have set their own ambitious targets to reduce its GHG emissions by 45% by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050. The SUEZ Air & Climate team are heavily invested and working with multiple sectors to review their Carbon Net Zero agendas.
As part of that work, the team has developed a complete innovative air quality service entitled AirAdvanced-Scan360® which enables providers and operators to examine their GHG footprint on an individual site basis, as well as review and determine site efficiency.
This technology was developed within a European project funded by the EIT-Climate KIC and in collaboration with a high-level academic partner (LSCE). Since its development the service has evolved to assess and quantify fugitive and channelled GHG emissions (N2O, CH4 & CO2) from a range of sites such as landfills, WWTP, anaerobic digestion (AD), EfW, and other sectors known for producing and using methane such as agricultural and oil & gas sector.
AirAdvanced-Scan360® provides solid data for annual reporting of GHG emissions and provides a reliable understanding for the respective site’s carbon footprint. It allows providers and operators to evaluate their operating performance cross referencing with their carbon accounting workbook as well as focus on any defined key performance indicators that have been set to ensure the achievement of the net zero carbon objective.
What’s different about AirAdvanced-Scan360® service? It’s comprehensive offering a much higher level of versatility, delivering fast localisation of quantified data, and, by using the Lagrangian dispersion model, operators are much more informed about the sources of emissions and their contribution to GHG.
AirAdvanced-Scan360® methodology approach can be summarised in 4 steps:
STEP 1 Site analysis and site measurements. Collecting site information (e.g. process description, PID, operational data), the measurement campaign and data treatment. Collated datasets are used to produce a mapping exercise for selected GHG concentrations on site and to assess the locality of any process leaks. Meteorological data is required too.
Gas analysers are used to measure CH4, CO2 and N2O with high frequency and high precision. To measure CH4 & CO2 the analyser incorporates the methodology Off-Axis-Integrated-Cavity-Output-Spectroscopy. For N2O the Optical Feedback-Cavity Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (OF-CEAS) is used.
The high precision gas analysers are transported across the site and around the perimeter to measure the presence and examine the magnitude of the emissions plume – in all areas and downwind. Combining the concentration analysis (ppm of CH4, CO2 and N2O) with GPS data recorded during the measurement campaign allows for the gathered datasets to be overlaid onto GIS imagery.
STEP 2 Emission estimate and dispersion modelling. The air quality datasets (ppm), meteorological data and site geometry information are agglomerated to estimate emission values (for example kg CH4/h). Emission values are calculated with the use of an inverse dispersion model. Inverse dispersion is done by using a Lagrangian dispersion model named MICRO-SWIFT-SPRAY. This provides the GHG emission output for the entire site and lists the attributing sources with their respective contributions.
Example of inverse modelling results for a methanization plant.
STEP 3 Proposal of technical solutions. Results from STEP 1 and 2 are presented and technical solutions to reduce GHG emissions and thus optimize plant performance are proposed. The main emission sources are ranked by priority and solutions are proposed based on available site information and expert knowledge provided by the Air & Climate Team.
STEP 4 Assessment of GHG emissions reduction. A comparative before and after analysis is undertaken to assess GHG reduction to review the integrity of the implemented solutions.
There are significant benefits operationally and for achieving carbon net zero targets to AirAdvanced-Scan360® – service versatility, fast localisation of quantified data, safer working conditions, increased operational revenues and reduced GHGs.