Understanding Internal Plant Processes Effect on Gas Emissions Using Data Analytics For a Large, Paper Manufacturer

THE BACKGROUND

The client, a Fortune 1000 manufacturing company, owns several paper mills. During the papermaking process, pollutants are emitted into the atmosphere. These pollutant emissions are heavily regulated by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), so the client must monitor their emissions to prove that they meet the EPA’s requirements. The client needs to meet governmentset pollutant emission limits, as measured at locations outside of the manufacturing site. The regulation puts limits on the frequency and duration that the emissions can cross specific thresholds at these external measurement locations.

There are a variety of methods the paper mill can use to mitigate the production of the pollutant, including changing operating parameters, temporarily shutting down parts of the process, and introducing a very expensive process additive to their scrubber that pulls the pollutant out of the exhaust. Each of these methods has an associated cost. The scrubbing additive would be prohibitive to operate at high levels 100% of the time.

The client is interested in gaining a quantitative understanding of how the operating variables and combined source operation conditions impact the pollutant emissions. This will enable the development of control strategies for reducing those emissions. They are also interested in being able to predict when the pollutant gas monitor levels will surpass upper limits based upon operational and weather data so they can implement the control strategies.