Patent for emissions monitoring system

The Emsys system is designed to measure gaseous emissions such as NOX, SOX and CO₂, as well as PM and opacity. The company says that measurement of the latter is becoming more prevalent, given the increasing focus on human health issues due to poor air quality as a direct result of ship emissions. According to WR, the IMO is currently discussing ‘black carbon’, a particularly harmful contributor to global warming, and limits for PM are antipated.

The US already enforces visible smoke emissions regulations for ships in port and in transit. It also has strict PM regulations for land-based emissions sources which may eventually be applied to shipping in the absence any IMO mandates.

Simon Brown, director of international maritime business at WR, says: “Our team spent three years developing a system which uses combined laser and ‘outside the stack’ PM measurement technology. The laser measures the gas ‘hot and wet’; therefore, we don’t need to have consumable filters, gas coolers and dryers. In addition, the laser doesn’t drift, meaning you don’t need to spend a fortune on calibration gas to keep the system in compliance. Emsys is designed to sit high up in the funnel space near where the exhausts all come together, this allows one sensor to measure up to 10 engines and boilers, meaning the install costs are significantly lower than the existing technologies. It also became apparent that owners were afraid of deploying emissions monitoring technology which may become obsolete given the inevitable introduction of new environmental regulations; therefore, we developed our PM and opacity measurement capability in advance of these regulations.”

WR reports commercial success for Emsys; recent contract awards include multiple scrubber monitoring applications, offshore drillship air permits and newbuild contracts in the Far East.