Working with Emissions Accountant

Emissions Accountant is a tool to help automate the task of tracking process emissions from the process vents of a chemical pilot plant or production facility. Emission inventories may be developed for production operations that require only standard process calculations as well as those that require Pre & Post process analysis as in some pilot plants.

The user may create process groups on the left side of the main user interface that will contain processes and/or process subgroups that are operated in the production facilities.

•

Process Groups. Add a new Process Group by selecting the 'Add Group' button at the lower left corner of the main interface window. Enter the name for this new process group. The new Process Group will be shown under the originally highlighted group when the entry was first initiated. Process Groups may be located, edited, or deleted using the appropriate button.

Reports are available on the Period Group Report Specifications page for the highlighted group. A group report applies to all of the batch production that is contained in the highlighted group and any subgroups that might exist. Select the Add button to create a new report from those available in the list. Report entries aren't generally present for a newly entered group and must be added using the Add button.

Reports may be used to analyze batch production that occurred during a specified period of time. For example: a company produces 15 batches of Product A, 25 batches of Product B, and 18 batches of Product C during the first quarter of 2004. The period report might be used to add up all of the Speciated emissions that occurred during this time frame and present the results in the form of lbs. of VOCs, Acid Gases, etc. for the quarter.

•

Processes. Add a new process to the highlighted group by selecting the 'Add Process' button to cause the process entry form to appear. Enter the name for the new process. Select 'Load Process File' to open the file browser and select the Emission Master *.csv file to be imported for the process record. Air emissions data are transferred from Emission Master to Emissions Accountant using the *.csv data exchange file (*.csv). If the emissions data is already contained in the Emissions Accountant then the user may associate the new process record to this emission data. When the emission file has been selected and the new process record entry completed then the process record will be listed in the highlighted process group. Process records may be located, edited, or deleted using the corresponding button.

Reports that pertain to the emissions for the process may be found under the Reports menu item on the process entry window.

Select a process from within one of the user established process groups in the system to add batch records to that process. Emissions Accountant provides two basic approaches to entering production records.

Batch Production. The standard interface for entering batch records focuses on manufacturing operations where batches are produced on specific days on the calendar. Once a new process has been entered into the database and the emissions data imported from Emission Master then specific batch records may be quickly and easily entered by entering a batch identification number and the calendar start date. Batch records are defaulted to use the same emissions that have been defined for the standard process unless the batch is an exception case and revised emissions data have been imported from Emission Master.

Select the Add Batch button to cause the batch entry form to appear. Enter an identifying batch name or number then specify the start date using the direct or drop down calendar feature. When a batch is first entered into the system the emissions for the batch are defaulted to the process emissions that were initially imported when the process was initially defined. If the emissions for this batch record are considered to be different that those for the base process then new emissions may be imported for this specific batch record using the Load Process File button. If the emissions data already exist in the system then they may be tagged to this batch using the Associated Existing Process button. The Details button can be used to inspect the emissions from the currently tagged emission file.

Use batch reports to analyze the emissions for a single batch record. For example: According to certain state regulations each batch must be analyzed in accordance to specific permit requirements for VOCs, Acid Gases, etc..

Period Production: For some operations, it is not critical that the exact start date for each batch be recorded. Instead, it might be adequate to simply enter the number of batches of a process that were produced during a given time frame. For example, this interface could be used to enter that 15 batches of a given process were produced during first quarter of the year. All batches that are specified within a production series are defaulted to have the same emissions as the standard process emissions. Emissions Accountant automatically estimates the start times for each of the 15 batches across the quarter.

Enter a period production record for the highlighted process by selecting the Add Period Production button at the bottom of the Period Production tab window. Enter the number of batches for this process that were run for the calendar period. Select an available calendar period and year or enter a custom start and end date to be used. Finally, select the Okay button when the number of batches run and the calendar range , the start, and end date have been specified. A new period production record will be entered into the system and displayed in the Period Production tab window.