Spectroscopy in Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (CEMS)

Spectroscopy is an excellent measurement technique for several environmental applications. Currently, there is a great demand for identifying and tracing chemical contaminants, particularly organic compounds, as they have a negative impact on the environment.

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Avantes is capable of distinguishing water pollutants, soil pollutants, and air pollutants. Additionally, the awareness that resources are limited forces the company to optimize the possibilities in the recycling sector. Here, spectroscopy provides a key tool for analyzing and enhancing the developments.

The monitoring of contaminants in ground water is especially a concern as the complexity of real time, in situ analysis that not only reveals the presence of, but can identify and quantitate contaminants and their products formed in situ. There is also a need to monitor contaminants present in the atmosphere in real time.

Avantes spectrometers are used in numerous applications, like:

• Atmosphere
  • Detecting forest fires
  • Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS)
  • Measuring ammonia in the environment (Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy(DOAS))
• Soil
• Water analysis

Forest Fire Finders Include AvaSpec and Telescope

The Forest Fire Finder is an innovative forest fire detector and tracking system that was developed in Portugal and is positioned on top of a tower. The system renders human observation redundant as it is automatic and autonomous. It was created with the aim of developing a system to help reduce the impact of forest fires using their early detection and tracking.

An Avaspec-2048-USB2 spectrometer is installed into the Forest Fire Finder, next to a video camera, a telescope, a processing/controlling unit, a weather station, and a communications unit. The video camera and the telescope are continuously scanning the horizon in a 320° angle.

A fiber connected to the Telescope provides light to the spectrometer, and can acquire spectra up to 15 km of distance. Spectra acquired from the spectrometer are processed and studied. A video camera captures pictures in a pre-determined time interval and can transmit real time video as well.

The camera is aligned with the telescope, ensuring that what is “seen” is what is analyzed. An alarm report is sent from the managing system control to the operations center via SMS, IP, GSM, etc. every time the system detects a forest fire.

The alarm report comprises of various information including fire location, weather conditions (wind direction and velocity, humidity, and temperature), detection time, and an image of the fire.

Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (CEMS)

One of the biggest contributors to air pollution is industrial gas emissions, which must be monitored continuously. In China, there are many companies that develop and manufacture Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS).

CEMS is used to perform the air pollution measurement and to monitor the concentration of suspended particles and industrial gases released from air pollution sources. The combination of UV spectrometers and CEMS is used to calculate the absorption of SO_xNO_x. More than 200 CEMS systems already have ‘Avaspec inside’, and the company believes that this will increase in the future.

This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Avantes BV.

For more information on this source, please visit Avantes BV.