CEM - Abstract

Abstract Information :

Continuous Emissions Monitoring System is a new technology and the industrial units in India have little experience and exposure to it. As of at present about 70% of plants (out of around 350+ plants in Gujarat) have installed CEMS and another 30% are in process. Nearly 80% of the units have connected the data transmission network to SPCB.

Major Challenges faced by the regulators in CEMS Implementation are:

Instrument Certification and Calibration
At present India doesn’t have tool for quality assurance of CEMS. Even device certification system or the system for performance check during installation are not in place. Due to these challenges were faced during the re-calibration exercise undertaken for 135 industrial units recently because 20 of them gave absurd and weird calibration curves. Hence, there is a need of instrument certification system like MCERTS or TUV like Europe and Germany so that the data obtained from the installed instruments is reliable and useful and implementable.

Data Acquisition and Handling System
The entire heart of implementation of CEMS lies in the Data Acquisition and Handling System. DAHS in India is still evolving and faces problems due to internet connectivity in remote areas. In the CEMS implemented, there are data availability cases as low as 10% or 20%. So, there is need to learn from the existing systems in Europe such in Germany where DAHS is delivered as package with instruments instead of a separate item and thus data availability is not an issue.

Data Validation and Analysis
Currently since there is no data validation protocol the data gap filling is difficult and the data cannot be used for compliance monitoring. At times it poses challenge as in absence of data availability, it is difficult to ascertain the status of such industries. CEMS data should be seen in conjugation with plant’s key operational data. This change needs to be developed like the German industries which consider CEMS data complementary to a plant’s operational data as it helps in optimization of the process.

Skilled Manpower
Currently there are meager number of skilled persons who understand CEMS well. None of the SPCBs have more than 1 or 2 persons comparing to not less than 300-400 industries they have to cater to. Hence, there is need of training and capacity building of the regulators for better understanding and implementation of CEMS as it is done in Europe for monitoring environmental compliance.

Conclusion
Thus, there are ample challenges and issues in implementation of CEMS in India which need specific attention and consideration for successful and meaningful implementation of CEMS which can be a future path for Self-regulation Regime and the lessons learnt by Europe and USA can be helpful for leapfrogging in the environmental compliance monitoring.