The Why and How of Emissions Monitoring Systems

ARC research indicates that emission monitoring system (EMS) implementations are largely driven by government regulations. In the US, the market grew rapidly for the last few years due to increased regulations. Europe also imposes strict emission limits and actively supports the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty aiming at reducing greenhouse gases emissions. The EU’s Emission Trading System (ETS) uses a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gases. Now, many other nations, including China and India, have also started experimenting with emission trading schemes. Therefore, as more countries adopt emission trading, the EMS market is likely to grow.

Emission regulations continue to narrow emission limits, requiring plants to measure increasingly lower concentrations of pollutants. Furthermore, regulatory agencies, especially those in developed nations, have been continuously adding monitoring regulations on various new components. One example of this is new regulations on mercury emissions. For a long time, regulatory agencies in many nations did not require monitoring of mercury emissions. As the awareness about mercury’s harmful effects has increased, however, many countries have started regulating mercury emissions. Under the MATS, the US EPA requires power plants to monitor their mercury emission levels. Many other countries have also started regulating mercury emission levels in various industries.

Developing Nations Drive Growth in Emissions Monitoring

With government policies and incentives promoting the use of no fossil energy sources in many countries, renewable energy is the world’s fastest-growing source of energy. Much of the world’s increase in energy demand occurs among the developing non-OECD nations, where strong economic growth and expanding populations lead the increase in world energy use. China and India are becoming somewhat more efficient in energy usage; industry experts predict that the rapid pace of economic growth in these countries could double carbon emissions from power plants over the next 10 years. Both China and India have made growth a top priority to be able to raise living standards, but these and other emerging countries also face mounting pressure to set caps on their greenhouse gas emissions.

Among all the developing nations, China has made the most progress in recent years when it comes to addressing environmental issues. In the last 30 years, China has observed tremendous industrial growth, which has come at the expense of the environment. While the country faced pressure to reduce emissions from outside for some time now, its own population is now demanding stricter emission requirements. With its political system, it has been comparatively easier for China’s government to bring in necessary regulations quickly. In India, the requirements of continuous emission analyzers have changed significantly over the last few years due to stringent pollution standards imposed by environmental agencies. Market pressures also require that modern EMS provide low cost of ownership, which, in effect, means that high reliability must be a design criterion. The time is right for India's coal-based power companies to initiate emission reduction measures, as they will face increased regulatory and public pressure both at home and abroad.

ARC Advisory Group has just published a new comprehensive global market research study on Emission Monitoring Systems (EMS). This ARC market study discusses current market performance and related technology and business trends, profiles leading technology suppliers, and provides five-year global industry and regional forecasts from 2016-2021 for the Emission Monitoring Systems (EMS) market.