Emissions Processing of New Continuous Emissions Monitoring System (CEMS) Data Format
Citation:
Beidler, J. AND A. Eyth. Emissions Processing of New Continuous Emissions Monitoring System (CEMS) Data Format. 2023 International Emissions Inventory Conference - The Nexus of Climate, Air Quality and Health: Smoke and Other Emissions Challenges, Seattle, WA, September 26 - 29, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
Hourly emissions data from continuous emissions monitors (CEMS) allow air quality models to incorporate precise emissions and temporal information for major point sources. This presentation describes the discontinuation of the previous format for CEMS and the development of a method to use the new format with enhancements. Without the use of hourly CEMS data the air quality models would not perform as needed for regulatory and human health impact needs.
Description:
Continuous emissions monitor systems (CEMS) measure emissions and heat output at stationary points sources. Measured hourly data from the CEMS at electricity generating units (EGUs) are provided on the Clean Air Markets Program Data (CAMPD) data site. In 2022 CAMPD began providing the CEMS data for emissions modeling in a new extended format that replaces the previous SMOKE hourly format. This change created an opportunity to move from the SMOKE CEMS hourly format to an hourly flat file (FF10) format that is consistent with emissions inventories for other emissions platform sectors. The CEMConvert tool was created as a preprocessor to prepare the hourly CEMS data in the new format for processing in SMOKE as an hourly FF10. This tool integrates other CEMS preprocessing steps such as those in the CEMCorrect tool to produce an entire set of SMOKE ready flat files.