Choose sustainable products for a greener plant

“Fans tend to be categorized first by design and then by specific speed,” says Dan Banyay, product development director at Robinson Fans. “Within one fan design, we are developing fans to meet all requirements from low specific speed operation to high specific speed operation, all with the goal to decrease energy consumption of the operation.” The fans are tested and verified for efficiency ratings at the company’s own AMCA-accredited lab facility.

Energy monitoring

Ready access to energy information gives managers greater control over energy consumption. CEO Mobile Apps from UtiliVisor (www.utilivisor.com) provide access to building energy data in real time, from any location, using a smartphone or tablet device. The Apps provide secure, customized, continuous energy oversight (CEO) of facility and critical system data points that are currently being monitored by UtiliVisor.

"Mobile Apps merge all disparate meter readings and operator-logged data with a facility's automation and controls historic data to provide a single, validated view of operating conditions in near real time, and from any location,” says Dave Harroun, chief technology officer for UtiliVisor.

Pollution control

Vapor recovery units (VRUs) remove and recover vapors from storage tanks, so they don’t escape into the atmosphere. Purgit’s refrigerated VRUs condense the volatile organic compounds out of the vapor stream. With closed-loop vapor control, the vapor space is stirred to eliminate dead areas. Mixing is required to obtain a representative sample of the vapor to confirm regulatory compliance.

“We knew our VRUs would be cleaner and safer than combustion systems in tank degassing applications, but what we didn’t expect to find over the past six years is that refrigerated vapor recovery is faster than all mobile combustion systems, too,” says Townsend Hilliard, project engineer at Purgit (www.purgit.com). “Our customers pick us for shorter tank turnarounds.”

At the federal, state, and local levels, efforts to control the emissions of hazardous air pollutants are ongoing. For example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed changes to the Industrial Boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology (Boiler MACT) emissions standard have renewed interest in selective non-catalytic reduction and other NOx reduction technologies.

According to the EPA (www.epa.gov), the standards cover more than 200,000 boilers and incinerators that emit harmful air pollution, including mercury, cadmium, and particle pollution. The proposed standards will control toxic air emissions from boilers located at large and small sources of air toxins.