Managing emissions in the here and now is taking on new meaning as technologies and know-how evolve. By Robin Ormerod.

Improvements in measurement and communication technologies have allowed management of the environment to become more timely and informed. The advent of accurate, fast-response monitoring systems, remote data transfer capabilities and the Internet has transformed the level of current information we can have at our fingertips.

Routinely, air quality information on a real-time basis is now available on websites ranging from the various state environmental authorities to individual company sites, such as RioTinto and BHP-Billiton at their iron ore ports in Western Australia. These websites provide communities with access to current information that affects their local environment and health, and demonstrate corporate actions to manage these issues.

From a site operations point of view, the lack of timely information about an emissions problem ensures the problem cannot be rectified quickly. On the other hand, accurate and relevant real-time information can help to head off problems as they develop or, with the added benefit of forecasting schemes, even before they develop. So it should be no surprise that various forms of real-time emissions management are taking hold on industrial sites, ports, wastewater treatment plants, mines and the like around the world.

In Europe, and especially France, a number of wastewater treatment and composting companies have taken the step of installing real-time monitoring systems for odour, combining odour measurements with electronic noses, weather data and plume dispersion models to display odour footprints more or less as they occur.

Sniffing out the source
Very recently, a system developed by PAEHolmes here in Australia has made its first moves into the European market.

Known as plumeXpert, it has been selected to provide a real-time odour management capability in a Spanish industrial city where a variety of odorous industries exist near residential communities. The local government is concerned about the level of community complaints and wants to better understand where complaints are coming from and to do this in a timely way so that problems can be better managed.

One of the primary applications of the web-based system in the Spanish project is to provide rapid response to complaints.

The system is designed to provide a continuous modelled picture of odour plumes from the main industries in the region and to store this information, along with weather and complaints information.

There are times when wind direction is not obvious or is variable, so a technique using detailed weather data is needed to sniff out the source of the problem.

As soon as the time and location of a complaint is entered into the system, an instant mapping of the path taken by the odour plume displays on the screen and points to the most likely source of the complaint. The back-track function also provides a timestamp along the odour plume’s path, so the time at which the problem odour was released can be estimated to help in troubleshooting the cause. All this takes only a few minutes from the time of receiving the complaint.

Over time, the accumulated database will allow the authorities and community to build up a picture of the most common sources of complaints and lead to better control actions.

Identifying the odour offender
In Australia, the utility of plumeXpert has been trialled at a couple of sites, including a large industrial facility.

The facility is a source of odours, but there are other odour sources in the region that may sometimes cause confusion about where the odour is actually coming from. In this situation, determining whether the facility is a source of a particular odour complaint has been one application of plumeXpert.

However, its primary use at this site has been using the back-tracking function to determine what time emissions causing a complaint would have left the site. This helps focus on any operational factors at that time which might have led to increased emissions, with the aim of preventing such problems in future.

When the local EPA office receives a complaint, they request an explanation from the facility about the event. With the real-time system, which receives data from an on-site weather station installed for the purpose, the process is streamlined using accurate weather information available in two-minute time-steps. It involves analysing plume back-tracks and, if required, video loops of modelled odour plumes around the complaint time. At any given time, the system will display the current odour plume position.

Real-time management solutions such as this make the most of available technologies and are beginning to make the job of managing odour, dust and other emissions more efficient. They can be web-based and made available to anyone (by choice), helping to reduce negative perceptions in communities by demonstrating a commitment to doing
the job better.

Robin Ormerod is a founder of PAEHolmes. Contact at robin.ormerod@paeholmes.com