Measure first, then think
Monday, 7:46 a.m., the phone rings: the plant is struggling. Could we come this week? We could.
On site, the plant documentation is waiting on the table: 373 pages, every value in the green. Only the gas meter disagrees. So the measuring equipment comes out first; the ideas can wait. Afterwards we know what the plant really does. It has little to do with page 212 of the documentation.
Only then does the concept take shape: what brings the most, what costs the least, and what keeps the limit values in view? Every measure has to stand up to the measured figures.
And then we stay at the plant. One lever up by 10 %, the other down by 17.5 degrees, measure, readjust, measure again. Why exactly 10 % and 17.5 degrees? It isn’t guesswork. Behind it are years of research and several publicly funded projects whose processes are running in production today.
In the end the emission values are right, and the exhaust gas temperature is around 30 °C lower. For the first time, the gas meter turns more slowly than the plant manager walks to the coffee machine. The fact that 12 % less gas is used along the way was really just a by-catch.
Is your plant struggling too, or does your gas meter have a mind of its own? Give us a call, ideally on a Monday. And if possible, after 9 a.m.
Measure
With our own measuring equipment, on the running process and without interrupting production, over representative production weeks:
- Total carbon in raw and clean gas (FID)
– up to 9 in parallel - CO, NO, CO2, O2 – with IR analyzers – up to 3 in parallel
- Individual substances by FTIR spectroscopy
- We take wet-chemical samples on site (e.g. absorptive sampling for formaldehyde); a specialist laboratory then analyzes them
- Volume flow with pitot tube and differential pressure
- Temperatures
- Data acquisition, even with several hundred measuring channels
Assess and plan
Energy and mass balance across the whole chain of production, dryer and exhaust gas treatment. This leads to a concept with savings potential and an investment framework that takes permitting and occupational safety requirements into account.
- The data from the as-is measurements are cleaned
and, where necessary, supplemented with process values, process changes, etc. - We develop data-driven and physically based models, analyze your plants and optimize operation and control for lower energy consumption and more stable processes
Implement
Analysis turns back into practice. We implement the solution ourselves or support implementation by third parties, accompany it through to commissioning and prove its success with a follow-up measurement.
- PLC programming for Siemens S7, TIA
and visualization in-house - Support through to commissioning
- Follow-up measurement using the same method as before
Research
- Contribution to VDI guidelines
VDI 2441 Prozessgas- und Abgasreinigung durch Kaltplasmaverfahren – Barriere-, Koronaentladung, UV-Strahlung (Process gas and waste gas cleaning by cold plasma processes – barrier and corona discharge, UV radiation),
VDI 2442 Abgasreinigung; Verfahren und Technik der thermischen Abgasreinigung (Waste gas cleaning – methods and technology of thermal waste gas cleaning),
VDI 3475-3 Emissionsminderung; Anlagen zur mechanischen und biologischen Behandlung von Siedlungsabfällen (Emission control – plants for the mechanical and biological treatment of municipal waste),
VDI 3930 Abgasreinigung – Effiziente Nutzung der Abwärme industrieller Abgase (Waste gas cleaning – efficient use of waste heat from industrial waste gases) - Presentations at the VDI conference “Emissionsminderung”, most recently in 2024 and 2026
- Ongoing work: electric heating of regenerative thermal oxidizers, and process data and machine learning with Audi AG and applied AI
- LAVA grew out of a funded project (ERDF/NBank, 2010–2012)