The INTRODUCTION
One of Britain’s luxury motor manufacturers has been at the forefront of reducing their environmental impact for over 20 years.
To continue their focus on energy and environmental management, they turned to ENVEA to develop a VOC emissions monitoring system. The reports would be used to understand how their emissions could potentially impact the local environment.
The BACKGROUND
Their forward-thinking approach has been applied to all other aspects of site sustainability. By applying lean manufacturing principles to the sustainability strategy, waste has been successfully reduced in all areas.
By 2025 the business aims to achieve a total production environmental impact reduction of 75 per cent against 2010. And by 2030, the motor company aims to be carbon neutral.
The PROBLEM
Given the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and dust in the manufacturing process plant, their local authority environmental permit only requires an indicative reading of pollutants once per quarter.
However, the CEO is passionate about the environment and wanted to learn more about the data than indicative readings would provide. To be able to control or reduce VOC and dust emissions, there needs to be visibility when high and low spikes occur to be able to understand the process.
Therefore, he challenged his team to find a continuous emissions monitoring system which would demonstrate his company site’s impact on the local environment.
His team approached a1-cbiss (now ENVEA UK) to recommend or develop a fully quantifiable VOC monitoring solution which could provide continuous monitoring data in each of their 72 ducts throughout their manufacturing process and spray booths.
The SOLUTION
The sheer size of the site and installation limitations were realised during the site survey. Our engineering capability combines the best of both gas detection and emissions monitoring experience to provide the best solution.
A traditional gas detection system setup would be to install a VOC monitor in every duct, but this solution would have been too expensive, so an alternative system was required.
Therefore, the team quickly realised that a new, bespoke solution was required to cost-effectively support the client’s demands.
We proposed a monitoring solution based on a proven sampling system which we were confident the technology would work for the client. We had to adapt and test the system to ensure it worked as we wanted it to now and for it to be fully adaptive for the future.
Due to the size of the plant and a restricted window of opportunity for install (works could only be completed during early morning hours whilst the plant was not operational), the project was segregated into 3 zones, of which would have sampling system and a screen to view the live data.
The system was installed at height to avoid collisions
The SYSTEM
Each sampling system comprised of 24 sampling lines, each running to a duct to collect the gas and dust sample. Sequentially, each sample is pumped to the sampling system.
The sampling system enclosure was installed at 4m high to avoid any collusions with the motorised buggies. Each sampling system enclosure houses a PID for VOC measurement and the Stack980 for the continuous measurement of dust. If the site is asked to report to the Environment Agency, the system is future-proofed and ready to support this with its Class 2 MCERTS certification.
Within a control-room in each zone, the emissions monitoring system was designed to display live VOC and dust emissions data on an Android interface screen for local operatives to provide regular visual checks.
Our data acquisition software (CDAS) collected the measurement data at the sampling system and communicated using 4G with the master PC in a separate building. CDAS then generated the emissions reports.
The RESULT
Our sampling system solution was the preferred solution because of our engineering capabilities and our ability to produce a system that perfectly suits our client’s requirements.
