(Image: Kobiz Media)
SEOUL, April 7 (Korea Bizwire) — The National Institute of Environmental Research said Tuesday that it had recently developed a Solar Occultation Flux (SOF) method that uses sunlight to measure the ultrafine dust-causing materials such as nitrogen oxide that are fugitively emitted not only through chimneys but also through a variety of production processes.
Fugitive emissions refer to the phenomenon in which air pollutants are emitted directly to the air through storage facilities and valves in the plant instead of being emitted through designated outlets such as chimneys.
Accordingly, it’s difficult to accurately measure these types of emissions, and there have been limits in finding the pollution source for the application of emission standards.
The newly-developed measuring method enables the quantitative calculation of emissions.
This method creates huge virtual columns between the sun and a spectrometer, and detects the location of fugitive emissions by surrounding the entire plant with these columns.
With this method, companies can calculate and reduce the quantity of fugitively-emitted pollutants. They can also reduce production costs by preventing the leakage of raw materials and products.
This new method also can contribute to preventing illegal emissions by enabling remote monitoring of pollutants emitted through chimneys with a height of more than 100 meters in real time without having to enter the premises.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
