The present project focused on maintaining the CEMS of the Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB), monitoring electric potentials and data quality of pollutant monitoring facilities to ensure data rationality and accuracy, as well as offering continuous assistance to help public and private premises producing the designated stationary pollution sources complete connection of their CEMS to the local competent authority.
There were five primary goals of this year’s project:
1. Maintained the software, hardware, and communication environment of the CEMS of the EPB.
2. Strengthened quality assurance and inspection of monitoring facilities to enhance the credibility and availability of the monitoring data
3. Audited the monitoring data against those of air pollution control fees reported by responsible enterprises to ensure accuracy and availability of the monitoring data and proper collection of the fees.
4. Improved the functions and data quality assurance of the EPB’s automated CEMS.
5. Provided guidance for newly established public and private premises to install CEMS and complete the connection of their facilities within the designated time period.
6. Responded to the EPA’s Data Acquisition and Handling System (DAHS) test for an overall promotion.
All work items were carried out as scheduled. The data were collected up until October 31, 2012. Table 1.5-1 in Chapter 1 shows the progress of the works conducted. There are currently 8 plants with 24 flue pipes in Yilan County that are required by the EPA to install CEMS to monitor the stationary pollution sources they produce. In terms of the manufacturing process, these plants involve cement manufacturing, boiler power generation, and incineration of general industrial waste. They are Hsing Ta Cement (4 pipes), Taiwan Cement (7 pipes), Lucky Cement Corporation (5 pipes), Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corporation (FCFC) Long De Plant (2 pipes), Li Ze Incineration Plant (2 pipes), Ruentex Cement (2 pipes), Dong Hong Jing Incineration Plant (1 pipe), and Lo-Tung Steel & Iron Works (1 pipe).
Emissions produced by the above flue pipes account for more than 80% of the emissions of stationary pollution sources in Yilan County; therefore, it is important to obtain accurate monitoring data of these pipes. The figure below shows the changes in the amount of NOx produce by the CEMS monitored pipes in the recent 6 years. About 8,000 tonnes of NOx were emitted in 2007. The amount produced plummeted to approximately 5,000 tonnes in 2008 because of the production and distribution adjustments made by plants due to economic recession and the shutdown of China Rebar Dong-Shan Cement Plant caused by the company’s financial crisis. In 2009, Ruentex Cement took over the China Rebar Cement Plant and contributed to the slight increase of the emitted amount for 2 months. The year 2010 still saw a little increase because of the full operation of Ruentex Cement. The data for 2012 were collected only up until October 31 of the year, but it was roughly estimated that the amount of NOx produced would be similar as the previous year.
Note: Dong Hong Jing Incineration Plant, a small scale plant, has been commercial operation since this March
The implementation results are summarized below.
1. Maintenance of system hardware, software and database:
Frequency: The system executed regular backups and maintenance once a week; the system irregularly performed efficiency adjustments and called for the repair for dedicated line disconnected.
Achievement: The system functioned smoothly during the project implementation, data transmission was stable, and system security was enhanced.
2. CEMS availability: As seen in Table 3.1-1 and 3.1-2, the average upload percentage of the daily reported data was at 100%, ensuring the integrity of daily data transmission. The system performs daily inspection and will send out notices to inform enterprises when reporting malfunction on their part lead to missing values in their daily reported data so as to ensure the complete transmission of data. The project team also dispatched personnel to oversee and request these public and private premises re-upload the missed data.
3. Inspection of the CEMS functions and monitoring data of plants: Twenty-four pipes were inspected, achieving an inspection completion rate of 100%. For more details please refer to Appendix 1 and 2.
4. Electric potential monitoring: Electric potential monitoring was conducted to ensure the accurate transmission of data among monitoring instruments. The data on the electric potentials of 18 operating flue pipes were collected for 5-7 days and analyzed. The monitored pipes are owned and operated by Hsing Ta Cement South Saint Lake Plant, Taiwan Cement Su’ao Plant, Lucky Cement Plant Dong’al Plant, Ruentex Cement Dong-Shan Plant, FCFC Long De Plant, Li Ze Incineration Plant, Dong Hong Jing Incineration Plant, and Lo-Tung Steel & Iron Works (only the operating pipes; some channels were temporarily closed in the off-season). For more information please see Section 4.2.
5. On-site overseeing of RATA inspections: The project team sent specialists to oversee the whole process of RATA inspections carried out to make sure that inspectors commissioned by the enterprises perform the inspections correctly and thereby ensure the RATA data accuracy.
By the end of October, 2012, the project team oversaw the RATAs conducted on 27 flue pipes and performed random RATA testing on 8 pipes for the first three quarters.
Again, all the inspections conducted were overseen this year to prevent data fabrication. The inspection results of the 27 pipes were satisfactory, and the audit inspections of the 8 pipes showed that they are all in accordance with law.
6. CGA inspection: Some pollutant-producing plants were temporarily shut down this year due to business cycle fluctuations. By the end of Quarter 3, 10 pipes in 3 plants underwent cylinder gas audits (CGA) instead of the quarterly RATA inspection. Among them, P201 was from Taiwan Cement, P115 was from FCFC Long De Plant; P001 and P029 were from Lucky Cement. The inspection records provided in Appendix 5 shows that the CGA inspection results are all in accordance with law.
Note: Please refer to appendix 5 for CGA inspection information
