Background

Wind carried pollutant emissions from processing plants and feedlots are of continued concern. A first step in rectifying a pollution source is characterization of the source.

Problem

A section of a large Mid-Western town was periodically overcome with noxious odors resulting in many complaints to the local regulatory Air Pollution Board. The first step in rectifying the situation was data collection of the chemical content of the fumes and identification of their source.

The Data Collection Solution

To both pin-point the source of the noxious fumes as well as identify the content, Logic Beach ModuLogger "Mini" data logging systems were teamed up with gas analyzers. The gas analyzers provided an analog output representative of the concentration of gases (intial focus was on H2S emissions). Gas analyzers with Logic Beach ModuLogger Mini data loggers attached to their back (see photo) were then deployed throughout the affected region.

The loggers were programmed to sample the gas analyzer outputs based on time and pass the data to memory only if it exceeded a preset threshold... thereby minimizing the volume of collected data. With the capabilities of the HyperWare software in the programming of field data loggers for conditional / intelligent logging the ensuing data download and data processing is minimized.

The study is ongoing, however, with data correlation of concentrations coupled with collected met data, the concentration levels and the emissions source are in the process of being identified.