Craig Sunada

Perma Pure , United States

Biography:

Craig Sunada is the Vice President of Product Development with Perma Pure, a world leader in gas sample conditioning, and has been involved in CEMS and sample conditioning for over 6 years and has experience with CEMS in Europe, Asia and India. He is on the board of directors of the Institute of Clean Air Companies and is passionate about helping the world to become cleaner and healthier, every day for everyone.

Short description about presentation:

Thermal Power plants are one of the major contributors of air pollution due to the emissions of toxic gases like SO2, NOx and particulate matter. To check the pollution from thermal power plants China’s Ministry of Environment Protection (MEP) introduced new emission norms in July 2011. The SO2 and NOx limits were reduced to 50-200 mg/nm3 depending upon the region. Lower emission standards work best when they are backed by strong implementation capabilities of local government and norms that support accurate reporting. As per the latest scientific reports there is visible reduction in the emissions from thermal power plants which corresponds to Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS) data and satellite images. One of the major force behind this reduction is the China National Environment Monitoring Centre (CNEMC), who is responsible for establishment of CEMS technical standards, norms and certification of CEMS, and many local province/city based Environment Monitoring Stations (EMS) that are responsible for the enforcement of the norms. The ultra-low-emission (ULE) norms with the SO2 limit set to less than 35 mg/m3 were formally issued by the National development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the National Energy Administration in September 2014 for thermal power plants. Today, thermal power plants have met the ULE norms after retrofits and this tight emission control has been expanded into other segments including many industrial boilers and petro-chem plants.

This paper discusses some steps taken by the CNEMC to develop a robust CEMS ecosystem in China so that accurate emission data is reported and the benefit of investment in pollution monitoring and control technology is realized. These steps include development of technical norms of certifying CEMS, new accurate portable emissions auditing technologies to enable rapid testing and feedback, and evaluation of new technology and equipment used for CEMS. While some of these steps likely cannot be replicated in other countries, some of the learnings and technologies can ease transitions in other countries to stricter emissions limits.