Industrial emissions
Advanced technology to control emissions from industrial applications.
Catalytic emissions control technology for stationary sources works in a similar way to catalytic converters in motor vehicles, but on an industrial scale. It can convert more than 95% of many toxic chemical pollutants which harm the environment and human health.
While the problems of emissions from vehicles are widely known there are many other dangerous chemical emissions from large stationary sources including: Nitrogen Oxides, Carbon Monoxide, Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), Dioxins and Furans, Methane, Ammonia, and Mercury.
Industrial facilities – and the exhaust gases they emit – are much less controlled by government mandates yet are just as harmful than those released by transportation.
AECC members provide industrial-scale emissions control technologies for dozens of different types of facility. They work in a similar way to vehicle catalysts: filtering, neutralising or converting harmful emissions.
There are three main types of technology to reduce pollution, depending on the chemical composition of the emissions: Selective Catalytic Reduction, Oxidation Catalysts and Catalytic Particulate Filters. The equipment is placed at the final stages of the industrial process – just before any emissions are released. It can be incorporated when plants are built, or retrofitted to just about any facility which emits gases.
Addressing Greenhouse Gas Emissions to mitigate global warming.
As a significant proportion of global emissions are caused by industry and power generation there is great potential to do more. Emission control technologies can convert non-CO₂ greenhouse gases which have a higher Global Warming Potential (GWP), expressed as a ratio to that of CO2.
Methane (17% of greenhouse gases) has a GWP of 28 on a 100-year timescale – which means that each molecule of methane released into the air is 28X times stronger at trapping heat compared to a single unit ofCO₂. This commonly used 100-year value furthermore underestimates its impact in the shorter timeframe. Its impact is far more severe over 20 years, with a GWP exceeding 80.
Nitrous Oxide (N2O) is 298 times more potent than CO₂ on a 100-year timescale.
This highlights the urgent need to address CH₄ and N₂O emissions alongside CO₂, as reducing these potent greenhouse gases can have a much fasterand stronger effect in slowing global temperature rise.