Nitric acid plants meeting the Kyoto Protocol
To meet the global requirement championed by the KYOTO PROTOCOL to stabilise green house gases at safer levels, process plant operators are required to optimize their plant to achieve environmental improvements. Protea's products have been certified under international standards to meet the stringent requirements associated with Nitric Acid Processes.
Solutions for particulate monitoring in the cement industry
The Protea In-Situ Continuous Monitoring solution is ideal for both large and small kilns used in the Cement and Lime production. The analyser can monitor CO, NOx & SOx in applications with high Dust, CO2 & Water Vapour in the sample gas.
Drying, cooling and agglomeration systems
For many years, operators of drying process have sought to find the solution to the reliable measurement of particulate emissions from drying/cooling and agglomeration systems. Whether they be in the food, chemical or pharmaceutical industries, they have all found a common problem associated with their process, which is simply the moist conditions found in emission stacks together with the sticky nature of particles passing through systems, making the reliable monitoring of particulate emissions extremely difficult.
Continuous Emission Monitoring for Cement Production
Our monitoring solutions provide continuous and precise measurement of particulate matter in cement kilns and mills, helping reduce emissions and maintain regulatory compliance.
Reducing Emissions from Industrial Processes by Effective Particulate Monitoring.
Reducing particulate emissions from industrial processes is a common goal for industrial plant operators across the industrialised world. A significant and growing number of industrial organisations understand that continuous monitoring plays an increasing role in reducing emissions since it provides the feedback to ensure dust arrestment plant continue to operate to optimum performance while reducing operating costs. In general dust arrestment plant is installed after industrial emission sources to reduce levels. While particulate may be controlled by Electrostatic Precipitators, Cyclones, Scrubbers and Filters, the trend is to install Filter Type arrestment plant since they have higher collection efficiency, create no waste water and can be designed to operate even at elevated temperatures. Particulate monitors are fitted after the arrestment plant to detect and monitor for malfunction or sub-optimal performance of the filter system, which will otherwise undetected lead to increased particulate levels. Particulate monitors can be used to pre-warn of imminent problems in filter systems by monitoring the dynamics of dust during the automatic cleaning cycle of a bagfilter. High peaks in dust are associated with the cleaning of a bag row with a failing filter bag and therefore by synchronising the instrument to the cleaning control system, maintenance personnel can easily determine which bag row requires maintenance before a major incident occurs. In addition, with large multi-compartment bagfilters, multi-probe dust monitoring systems can be used to detect and isolate the compartment causing elevated emissions which again allows emissions to be controlled. It is now widely understood that increased particulate levels have a direct impact on human health problems and global pollution. The health problem is particularly apparent with small particles, which are absorbed by the human lung and particles with high carbon and metals content. Therefore Environmental Regulators worldwide stipulate emission limits for particulates. In addition many regulators require continuous particulate monitors to be fitted to industrial processes for the same two reasons: • To enforce particulate emission limits in mg/m3 and kg/year. • To provide feedback that pollution abatement equipment is working correctly. The overall trend is that continuous particulate measurement is required in both the large stacks and those with environmentally sensitive emissions. Other types of continuous particulate monitoring such as qualitative and filter failure detection can be required in smaller processes. Particulate emission monitoring is a challenging technical field ,not only because of the application specific accuracy and performance of these monitors, but also due to the harsh environments in which they must continuously operate. To meet these challenges, Group Instrumentation have a comprehensive range of monitoring solutions to meet the broad needs of particulate emitting industries and the requirements of national regulations. Applications generally fall within the following four categories:- Particulate Measurement Systems These systems provide continuous measurement of particulate emission concentrations which, for a defined range of application conditions, have the accuracy and consistency of response to be reliably calibrated against isokinetic gravimetric test samples (Standard Reference Method, SRM).
On-Line Moisture & Temperature Measurement for Bulk Solids.
Online Moisture and Temperature Measurement for Solids. ENVEA (SWR) M-SENS-3 was designed especially for continuous moisture and temperature measurements of bulk solids like powders, granulates, grains for the food processing industry. This microwave technology sensor is also designed to indicate material flow, which allows you to be sure that measured material is effectively flowing in your process. This increases the validity of the moisture measurement and allows you to quickly detect process failure, such as a defective screw conveyor, clogging, etc, via an alarm. M-SENS-3 is characterised by its uncomplicated installation as well as by its simple calibration. Due to its hygro-stability and its resistance to mechanical shocks and abrasion, the entire sensor is very fail-safe and allows a long service life. The sensor window is protected by a ceramic disc, being very resilient with regard to abrasion and pressure. This product has been developed to incorporate the latest improvements and advantages in technology, including:- • Online instant and accurate moisture measurement. • Online process/material temperature measurement. • With flow detection. • High temperature and hazardous area versions. • Maintenance-free. The M-SENS-3 sensor functionality is based on precise high-frequency measurement and direct digitalisation of measured values, providing a high resolution. As the materials surface and capillary moisture influences strongly its specific conductive capacity, the moisture can be measured exactly by a constant averaged bulk density. Process fluctuations caused by temperature or whether material in front of the sensor is in motion or not are detected and compensated for, so that all measurements are legitimate. With the integrated temperature measurement, the user receives another important process parameter in real time, which is particularly interesting for drying, heating or cooling processes. The calibration is simply carried out by the operator pressing the relevant button on the control unit, then entering the referenced moisture contents. In this context it is convenient that measured value fluctuations by bulk density variations are balanced by an internal filter function. Additionally measured value fluctuations by temperature variations are compensated automatically by the sensor. A complete measurement system consists of the following components: • Weld-on sensor mounting flange. • 1 to 3 sensors, each with a 2-metre connection cable. • An indicating transmitter in a field mounted housing, or a DIN-Rail format unit. • Optional Junction Box for connection between sensor(s) and transmitter. Due to the ability to use up to three M-SENS-3 sensors for an application, connected to a single transmitter, induced measurement inaccuracies, caused by the materials inhomogeneity, can be reduced. At the same time there is reduction of the influence of bulk density variations which normally exist over the whole measurement zone. Some application examples: The installation of a moisture sensor in screw feeders proved to be very advantageous, since the material passes by the sensor window in even intervals and with relatively constant bulk density. By means of the online moisture measurement of solids on a conveyor belt, the operator can react in due time if the material is too humid or too dry. Consequently, plugging of subsequent aggregates can be prevented. Another installation alternative is to mount a sensor at a bin outlet. Due to constant bulk density in case of a filled bin, the sensor finds an almost unchanging measuring field for monitoring the residual moisture. Therefore, the M-SENS-3 avoids that too damp material reaches the next production level or arrives at the loading. After the material lying on the belt has passed through the dryer tunnel, it gets withdrawn from the hot air zone. At the end of the belt the dried material falls in a screw conveyer which transports it to the processing. The operator queries the following points: Has the material really reached the desired residual moisture value? That is has he chosen the right cycle time and temperature? M-SENS-3 provides accurate and reliable online moisture and temperature values for the process control, by which constant moisture in close tolerances of the output material can be met. This process optimisation enables the operator to manage high savings and quality improvements. M-SENS-3 can be installed even later on in all types of mixers. The measuring values logging is done within the moving material during the mixer procedure. With the measured moisture value of the material in the dryer process, parameters like detention time and dosage quantity can be controlled. For this purpose, M-SENS-3 is connected to a PLC or another process control system.
Multi-Component FTIR Gas Analyser for Continuous Measurement of ppm to % vol in a Portable or Mobile Form.
Protea’s atmosFIRt transportable multigas analyser system represents one of the most cost-effective and flexible analytical products in today’s market. At the heart of atmosFIRt is a high-resolution, robust and proven FTIR spectrometer, offering high signal throughput, low noise and long lifetime components. This analyser has been developed to incorporate the latest improvements and advantages in technology, including: • Low cost of ownership – Low maintenance. • Robust and light, using latest fabrication materials. • atmosFIRt combines an FTIR analyser with an in-built sampling system and is designed to operate down to ppm level emissions monitoring, as a portable or benchtop unit. • atmosFIRt is provided in a rugged transportable case for mobile site measurements as well. With mobile FTIR equipment, site work often involves the investigation and understanding of emissions or process vents. With atmosFIRt the ability to measure complex mixtures down to low concentrations is available with its high-resolution features. However, the real benefit is that it is variable resolution, so if there is the need for measuring at 4cm-1 or 8cm-1 resolution, the atmosFIRt can be set to these resolutions with a simple setting in the included software. No hardware changes would be required. Using Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) analysers for stack gas emissions provides a powerful analytical technique that is able to identify and quantify a large number of species from common combustion process pollutants such as CO, NOx and SO2 through to complex organic compounds. This multi-component, multi-range portable FTIR gas analyser measures 1,000’s of gases, with the software offering no limit on the number of gas measurements at once, due to its powerful algorithms. Data can be downloaded and re-analysed offline for new gases. The system includes an integral O2 sensor, heated inlet filter and sampling control. Protea’s Analyser Software (PAS) is the standard data acquisition and analysis package for laboratory and mobile field measurements of FTIR data. As a data collection system, it has all the functionality required for research level FTIR analysis. As well as collecting FTIR data, PAS allows for connection to Protea’s sampling system control electronics. This monitors and controls sample cell temperature and pressure, provides control for purge valves to the instrument and also relays, digital and analogue I/O to external devices. Models can be span corrected to match reference gas cylinders and linearity checks can be made for conformance with performance standards. When defining analysis methods, PAS also allows for model switching on constants or other variables, for example two chemometric models can be built over different ranges, one 0-100ppm and one 100-1,000ppm. PAS will automatically switch and use the most suitable model for the concentration mix. Analysis summaries provide in-depth statistical tests on chemometrics – Range, max; Absorption peaks, max; Residual noise equivalence tests, etc. In summary, the FTIR technique offers great advantages over traditional sampling techniques because it is a continuous and sensitive tool capable of measuring individually a large number of inorganic and organic compounds in emission gases. FTIR means it is possible to provide real-time, continuous measurements rather than the single averaged values that the manual chemistry techniques give. FTIR provides a powerful technique for studying new plant and processes helping in the optimisation of production and reduction of emissions to atmosphere. For example, FTIR is ideal for monitoring batch chemical processes, as continuous FTIR monitoring can track discontinued or varying emissions, plus the technology’s capability to measure multiple components makes it suitable for many different plants and different reactions. This makes it possible to consider emissions reduction approaches to operations.