Clean Air Information Management System (CAIMS) provides an integrated computing environment for batch-processing industries to address complex environmental challenges required by air regulations. It will assist the users in streamlining compliance, record-keeping, and reporting requirements under the Title V Operating Permit, MACT, and many other federal and state air permitting programs. It is designed specifically for pharmaceutical, chemical, and other batch production plants to become more competitive in business, save resources, and make informed environmental decisions.

The Work Flow

Security
The Security module maintains a user database that contains user IDs, passwords, and access privileges. The system administrator is able to customize a security profile for each user based on his/her job functions. Data access security is divided into six levels. They are:

• no access
• read only
• read/update
• read/update/add
• read/update/add/delete
• read/update/add/delete/extend

In order to track data changes, CAIMS records the user ID and date/time along with the data showing when a record is created or updated in the database.

Reference
Chemical Maintenance
The Chemical module manages information for all the regulated air pollutants. The Chemical module stores the chemical name, CAS number, subject regulations, and the chemical's physical properties (e.g., Antoine constants) required for emission calculation. If the chemical's Antoine constants are not available from literature sources, a simulation tool is provided to estimate them.

Equipment Maintenance
The Equipment module maintains a master list of equipment that emits regulated air pollutants. Six major categories of equipment can be tracked under CAIMS. They are process equipment, condensers, storage tanks, combustion sources, other controls (e.g., scrubbers), and wastewater components. Detailed equipment design specifications are also tracked in the database.

Emission Calculation
The Emission calculation module provides a set of simulation tools for estimating air emissions from process vessel, equipment leak, storage tank, combustion source, and wastewater fugitive.

Emission simulations are performed via an intuitive graphical interface

Using the drawing tool, the user can draw a process diagram showing vessels, condensers, additional controls and final emission points. The process drawing is connected to the emission database. By double clicking on an equipment icon from the drawing will bring up all the emission data relating to the equipment. CAIMS provides a set of simulation models to help the user calculate emissions. Emission models include equations for calculating emissions from filling, purging, evacuation, heating, vacuum distillation, vacuum drying, air-drying, and gas-evolution operations.

For each chemical operation, the user has the option of obtaining mass balance for each chemical involved in the process. Material left from previous steps can be automatically transferred to successive steps for emission simulations. CAIMS also generates process Gantt charts to help engineers estimate potential emissions and create production schedules.

Supporting documents such as batch sheets, engineering assumptions, and regulation text pertinent to each emission simulation can be stored in CAIMS for future reference. CAIMS manages any type of supporting documents regardless of how the document was created, either by computer software or in hardcopy format.

Permit
The Permit module tracks all the applicable requirements and emission limits specified in the Title V permit. Permit data provides the basis for emission monitoring, compliance inspections, reporting requirements, and compliance certification. The entire permit document can be managed under CAIMS, regardless of whether the original documents are computer files or hardcopies.

Documents created with computer software can be brought into CAIMS with a single drag-and-drop feature. Hardcopy documents can be scanned into CAIMS using scanners. After the document is brought into CAIMS, all users will have access to it by simply double-clicking on the document.

A search engine in CAIMS provides document search using keywords, dates, or document types.

Monitoring
The Monitoring module manages monitoring parameters, monitoring schedules, monitoring data, compliance records, and actual emissions. The actual emissions are tied to the plant's production records. Management is able to query the central database for a detailed view of actual emissions.

Monitoring can be scheduled through the Event Schedule screen. The Event Schedule can be used to schedule monitoring events, notify responsible persons, send attachments, document monitoring results, and trigger warnings for past-due events.

The Event Schedule module automatically interfaces with the plant's email system to exchange information with any person available from the corporate-wide email list, even if they are not CAIMS users and their office is not physically located in the plant. Information can be sent to overseas locations if an email connection is available from the corporation's email network.

Plant management can setup triggers in CAIMS to automatically send a warning message to responsible people if an important compliance event is not being completed so that follow-up actions can be taken as soon as possible.

In order to keep management abreast of compliance status, a powerful drill-down feature is provided for viewing emission data.

The user can view actual emissions generated for each emission source defined in the permit. Emission source is a group of emission units that can be defined by the user. An Emission Source can be as broad as an entire plant, a single process, a manufacturing area, or as small as a process vessel. Emissions from a source can be drilled down to see detailed emissions generated from the underlying process, equipment, and material within the source.

System Requirements: Windows 95/ 98/ ME/ NT/ 2000/ XP 256 MB of RAM 50 MB of disk space

Key Features Reference Information Facility information tracking for organizations Complete equipment inventory and equipment type maintenance Reference chemical information tracking including all material properties Emission Calculations Process emissions (activity coefficient, Henry's law, Raoult law) Storage tank emissions Equipment leak fugitive Combustion sources Wastewater fugitive Permit Graphical pollutant trend analysis Monitoring Campaign Tracking and Control Downtime Tracking Emission calculation factor setup for process, equipment leak, storage tank, combustion source, and wastewater fugitive Equipment layout module that automatically sets up emission calculation estimation Potential To Emit (PTE) calculations for each emission type Actual emission calculations for each emission type Emission CAP & Emission Tracking Tracks Applicable Requirements Compliance evaluation and certification Viewing and enforcing non-compliances Material balance & cost analysis Modeling Dispersion modeling to perform risk assessment Data View, Reports, and Graphs Comprehensive list of reports to view reference data, factor setup, and calculated data Drill-down graphs and diagrams for compliance tracking purposes

Cost Allocation
According to Puerto Rico Title V, Rule 2. the Title V application fee is determined based on the plant's potential emissions. In addition to the permit fee, treatment costs associated with various waste streams also provide useful information to management for identifying any cost-effective pollution prevention opportunities. The Cost Allocation module tracks cost data for each emission type, and ties cost information to production records.

Compliance Certification
To help engineers prepare compliance certifications, CAIMS provides a comprehensive data analysis screen to assist engineers in assessing compliance for each applicable requirement. All compliance records are automatically categorized for each applicable requirement during data input and are presented in one central screen for evaluation.

Compliance Evaluation Screen

Compliance status can be determined by the user and recorded in the database after the user has reviewed all the records. CAIMS uses a color-coded scheme to track compliance status for each requirement. The color can be easily spotted from the screen and can be used to remind the user of potential deviations or requirements that need to be evaluated.

MACT Compliance
The MACT Compliance module provides critical emission and process information for determining control requirements required by NESHAP regulations promulgated under Section 112(d) of CAA. It also maintains monitoring data and tracks compliance records for MACT compliance.

Dispersion Modeling
The Dispersion Modeling module allows the user to perform risk assessments for different emission episodes. Both the screening models and the refined models are provided from CAIMS.