The last few decades have seen clear progress in activities related to industrial air emission control.
This results from a number of factors such as the introduction of new technologies and more efficient production processes increased environmental awareness and increasingly stringent legislation.
But the industry still has room for improvement, to minimise its environmental impact. To continue to protect the environment, to ensure the quality of the resources that make life possible and to look after the health of citizens. To commit, in short, to the future and to sustainability.
How? Among other things, by committing to industrial emissions control systems that monitor in real-time, such as the solutions offered by Kunak.
Industrial air emission control, making visible what you are breathing in
A competitive and diversified industrial sector is a guarantee of a strong and resilient economy. But putting growth before the environment and people’s well-being often has dire results. The alternative is to ensure that these companies continue to operate, but in a more efficient and controlled way, starting with an understanding of the effects they have on the environment.
In this respect, legislation has made clear progress in establishing emission limits. Thus, in the case of Spain and an increasing number of other countries, companies with polluting emissions are legally obliged to control these substances. It is not in vain that industry is, together with traffic, one of the most relevant anthropic sources of emissions.
However, this type of task is not part of the services we offer at Kunak. Our mission is not to replace standardised pollution measurement procedures but to complement them.
Monitoring, for example,
- odour pollution caused by hydrogen sulphide (H2S) or ammonia (NH3) released from facilities such as wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), composting plants or the paper industry;
- diffuse emissions from industrial perimeters which may include substances such as CO2, CO, NO2, SO2, VOCs, H2S, O3 and PM1, PM2.5 & PM10; and
- accidental releases and leaks from industrial areas
through the deployment of ring-shaped air quality monitoring stations network such as the new Kunak AIR Lite.
Control of industrial air emissions, 2 examples clearly demonstrating its importance
At Kunak we have extensive experience in the design of mechanical devices for the control of industrial emissions. And to show you the suitability of this activity, there is no better way than to show you some of our own and external examples.
Odour control system in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP)
Wastewater odour control is, for example, a paradigmatic case of the usefulness of our solutions.
In fact, the benefits of this type of monitoring have been demonstrated in facilities as far away as the Arazuri WWTP (Navarra, Spain) and the Vicentina WWTP (São Leopoldo, Brazil).
The main pollutant being monitored in both projects is H2S, a gas easily distinguishable by its nasty smell.
The systems deployed in the field and equipped with anemometers record the concentrations of hydrogen sulphide, transmitting real-time data to the Kunak Cloud platform. Our software, in addition to allowing visualisation of the information, allows alerts to be set up, or to calibrate and check the status of the stations.
Measuring air emissions from fracking operations
Another clear example of the suitability of such massive deployments for monitoring industrial emissions is the project to detect diffuse emissions related to fracking operations in Ohio (USA). In this case, the objective was to test the impact of this activity on health and to complement the readings obtained by the official US EPA stations. The result has been the establishment of a correlation between the symptoms reported by the inhabitants of the local communities and the pollution peaks.
The urban growth experienced by urban areas, which has ended up “gobbling up” industries, or the need to provide cities with nearby sanitation and purification systems are two issues that are difficult to solve because it is not always possible to relocate to a less conflictive area.
However, in cases where inhabited areas and industrial activities such as the petrochemical industry or energy production have to share space, monitoring technology and creating clean air zones can be useful to minimise impacts.
Because, in the end, it is all a matter of willingness to address the problem. About invest in proven systems and collect the reliable data needed to act quickly and effectively. It’s about trusting in Kunak’s solutions.
