Clean Air Engineering, Inc. services

When disaster strikes CleanAir is there for you providing rapid emergency response monitoring services for hazardous air pollutants (HAP). These include benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene and xylene (BTEX). Target compounds can be measured through the application of a variety of real-time monitoring approaches, such as Photoionization Detectors (PID), open-path monitoring systems (UV DOAS) as well as portable gas chromatographs (GC) and mass spectrometers (MS).

Large field-erected cooling towers are a substantial investment and impactful to the performance of associated equipment. In order to ensure that you “got-what-you-paid-for”, many cooling tower contracts include a final milestone payment tied to demonstration of guaranteed performance through independent testing. CleanAir performs these performance tests as a CTI licensed test agent under the guidelines of ATC-105. An ATC-105 test is a rigorous test that translates performance from off-design conditions to equivalent performance when the tested tower is operated at design water flow rate, heat load, inlet wet bulb temperature, and fan motor power.

Cooling towers emit drift – which is a small fraction of their circulating water. The evaporation of cooling tower drift leads to PM emissions that cause downwind corrosion, icing, transmit legionella, and present other safety concerns. The US EPA considers cooling towers to be a source of particulate matter (PM) emissions so drift is often regulated by local air permits. Federal emissions factors as published in AP-42 are grossly conservative. This means facilities using AP-42 factors are “over-reporting” the amount of drift and associated PM from their cooling towers. We can accurately test your cooling tower drift emissions per industry standards so that you can report realistic drift and PM numbers.

The size of the particles generated by the evaporation of the drift from a cooling tower is a function of the size distribution of the drift as well as the water chemistry. We can also measure the size of the droplets exiting the tower (7 to 4000 microns) and determine PM size fractions (PM10 and PM2.5). To do this, CleanAir has adapted a laser technology to measure the size distribution of cooling tower drift – Oxford Laser’s VisiSize D30.

One of the most common workplace injuries is hearing loss, and cooling towers can be a significant source of noise emissions. Like our clients, we are continuously working to eliminate hazards and use engineering controls to reduce our employees’ exposure to dangerous environments. CleanAir can perform sound testing in accordance with CTI ATC-128 or other test codes to measure near field and worker exposure to noise from your cooling towers. Taking this first step helps you determine the most effective ways to reduce cooling tower noise emissions.

Plume-abated cooling towers are designed to minimize the amount and density of the visible plume that condenses at the cooling tower exhaust. These towers may be required by local authorities when the visible plume is a safety hazard or nuisance. Common settings include airports, locations adjacent to highways and urban settings. CleanAir evaluations are conducted in accordance ATC-150 to determine if plume-abatement performance guarantees have been met.

CleanAir helps collect, process, and analyze data in real-time with web-based applications. Our clients aggregate data and automate reporting with the help of our air quality consultants and software engineers. When mundane tasks and tedious to-dos are eliminated, environmental teams are less stressed and more productive.

In December 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized its evaluation of the inhalation carcinogenicity from long-term inhalation exposure to ethylene oxide (EtO). The results were published via the Agency’s Integrated Risk Information System and indicated an increased carcinogenic potential for exposure to airborne EtO in the vicinity of facilities operating with EtO. This resulted in increased public scrutiny and subsequently led to a need for the industry to better characterize and control EtO emissions and leaks. CleanAir has developed a unique skillset and partnerships that allow it to utilize the best available measurement technology to find solutions for generating defensible data aiding in confident decision making and managing exposure risk.