Need
Air quality monitoring is a crucial component of environmental management in the chemical industry to ensure both regulatory compliance and community well-being.
Due to the high costs and high maintenance needs of traditional type-approved measuring devices, air quality monitoring at large industrial areas is usually limited to only a few strategically positioned measurement stations.
Kunak’s advanced air monitoring technology enables users in the chemical industry to scale their measurement network and provide a comprehensive real-time monitoring of the industrial area.
With an area of 10 km2 the headquarter of BASF SE in Ludwigshafen is the largest integrated chemical complex in the world. Many thousands of products for customers from almost all industries are manufactured in the 200 production plants at the site in a highly integrated Verbund starting from organic base chemicals to highly specialized chemical products.
Due to the proximity of the site to residential areas, BASF operates five air quality stations employing traditional type-approved measuring devices and continuously screens the air quality at the site and its surroundings with a fleet of measuring vans.
BASF explored the potential of Kunak’s sensor-based solutions to evolve its current measurement approach into a denser, resource-efficient, real-time monitoring network.
FOCUS AREAS
- Performance at monitoring VOCs: With many petrochemical facilities at the site this is a crucial prerequisite.
- Real-time data with high availability: This is needed to detect emissions and act timely in case of increased concentrations.
- Consistency of data and time-series with existing type-approved measurement devices: This is a prerequisite to ensure that authorities accept the data.
- Integration with existing systems: Any new monitoring technology had to seamlessly integrate with BASF’s internal environmental management platform.
