QED Environmental Systems Inc.
Proposed Project for the MSU Industrial Math Students
Introduction:
Active and inactive domestic solid waste landfills (US) require the
installation of systems to control and capture methane produced by the anaerobic
processes breaking down the waste. Safety, green house gas control (methane has
25x the green house gas impact of CO2) and capture for energy use are all
reasons these systems are installed. Additionally, regulations govern the
methane gas emissions for air pollution and safety reasons. While some
landfills employ passive flare systems to burn off the methane, this study will
focus on larger, controlled systems that use a large vacuum pump, piping and
wells to draw the methane to a central location at the site for use generating
electricity or gas recovery.
Data is currently collected from the numerous extraction points (gas well
heads), often as frequently as once a week. A typical landfill may consist of
50 to several hundred well heads. The frequency of data collection, combined
with the number of data collection points, creates a large, multivariate data
set that grows over time. This data (landfill gas data – LFG data) is typically
stored in spreadsheets or enterprise level environmental databases, but current
data use is restricted to flagging exceedences, some charting and (more rarely)
some data trend mapping as related to GPS location of the well point.
Description of Data Sets:
- Currently collected data -
data is currently collected by field technicians that visit the well heads and
take data on a number of parameters, an example of which is shown in the table
below. Issues of field instrument accuracy, precision and calibration are not
currently integrated into the data set.
- Static site/position data -
there will also be a data set of various fixed parameters relating to the
data collection point (well head), such as GPS location (formats like GPS-UTM –
http://maptools.com/UsingUTM/), well
depth, elevation, screen length, etc.
- Other available data – other, time based data may be useful, such
as barometric pressure (and other weather and temperature data) taken from
nearby Weather Underground stations.
- Future data additions – certain data inputs that do
not exist today may be useful from a process control standpoint, such as sensor
based vacuum or temperature data (to increase data resolution beyond weekly
readings), control valve position as a repeatable number, etc.
Problem 1: Multivariate Analysis of
Large Data Sets from Landfill Gas Colletion Systems
Use statistical/Taguchi methods to discover data relationships – this
would be an effort to dig deeper than the current single variable data analysis
and contour mapping of individual data parameters that has gone on in the past.
Are there relationships between parameters and/or other drivers, such as
barometric pressure that explain data trends? Can analysis of data trends create
information about system “noise” or field technician sampling variations?
Further, can this work suggest changes in how data is collected or analyzed to
give a better picture of the overall multi-well system and the controls that are
used to manage it? Does this work result in a site-specific numerical model
that can be used for predictive operational control?
Problem 2: Developing Predictive Models of Landfill Gas Data
Sets for Process Management
Use PID control theory to predict system changes and drive convergence – can
classic PID control techniques be employed to give field technicians recommended
operational control changes that result in more stable overall systems?
This assumes that current data/control changes are driving systems where
hysteresis is the result of non-precise, or incorrect control changes.
Problem 3: Utilizing Data Visualization Tools to Deepen the
Understanding of Large Landfill Gas Data Collection
Use 3D and time based data visualization tools to discover hidden data
relationships. This is related to #1. – can a presentation similar to this
example – 2011 Japan earthquake data visualization –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKp5cA2sM28 – help deliver a deeper
understanding of system data variations as they relate to both control changes
and external drivers (such as barometric pressure, air temperature, etc.).
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