AVC Specialists became the first company in the pollution control industry to use a handheld computer to modify smokestack emissions, by using the Socket Serial I/O Card and a Pocket PC to control precipitators in industrial plants.

"Everyone is aware of what we do now,
and that has changed their opinion of our company, because now we are more advanced than any of our competitors in
the field."
Kevin Illig, Control engineer and operations manager, AVC Specialists

Challenge: To find an easy, accurate, and cost-effective way to modify smokestack emissions.

Solution: Socket Serial I/O Card combined with Compaq iPAQ H3765 Pocket PC and an RS-232-to-RS-422 converter.

Results: The Serial I/O Card helped AVC Specialists make modifying smokestack emissions more user-friendly and accurate while decreasing infrastructure and labor costs. Inquiries from potential customers have increased, as has the potential ability to win government incentives. The card has also helped AVC Specialists distinguish itself as an industry innovator.

At their annual industry tradeshow in 2002, AVC Specialists caused a stir. There, among all the other companies that provide industrial plants with parts and services for pollution control, AVC Specialists made news as the first in their industry to use a mobile computer to modify smokestack emissions. The president of AVC himself demonstrated the equipment. People who would not normally visit the AVC booth stopped to take a look. At the center of all the fervor was a Pocket PC with proprietary software, which when combined with the Socket Serial I/O Card and a RS-232-to-RS-422 converter, allowed a technician to quickly, easily, and thoroughly modify smokestack emissions like never before possible.

Lackluster Solutions of the Past
In order to understand the excitement that AVC generated with their mobile computing system, one must first appreciate the difficulties that traditional solutions have involved.

Industrial plants commonly use a precipitator to process certain types of waste. A precipitator is a machine, made up of many devices distributed throughout the plant, which separates toxic particles from smoke before it is released into the air. A precipitator may have as few as four or as many as a hundred of these devices. To keep up with fluctuating chemical levels, the devices must be continually adjusted on an individual basis. However, there has never been an easy, accurate, and cost-effective way of doing so.

One method has been to install a network of cables to connect each device back to a main control room, where operators can remotely configure each device. But precipitators are often difficult to wire because of their size - sometimes as high as a five-story building. Plus, using a cabled system does not allow very accurate device configurations, because the information flow via cables is so limited. Perhaps the greatest drawback of installing a cabled network is cost. "It's nothing to have five miles of cable in a plant," said Kevin Illig, control engineer and operations manager for AVC. At approximately 50 cents per linear foot, wiring a whole precipitator easily adds up to tens of thousands of dollars.

Another method has been to hire skilled technicians who roam the premises, open up the control panel of each device, and manually make adjustments. However, accessing the control panel is no easy task. "Some of the places are 100-200 feet up in the air, some located in adverse weather," Illig said. "There aren't too many operators who like to put on boots and a parka in subzero weather to get at a control system."

After a technician accesses the panel, configuring it is tough too. A lot of programming is involved, and the control panel is not user-friendly. "It looks like something out of a 1970s museum," said Keith Ward, a consultant who developed the Pocket PC software for AVC. "It has an old-style keypad, and you have to figure out how to use it." In fact, this difficulty is exactly what inspired the idea for using a Pocket PC.

Creating a Better Solution
"Because making modifications to these individual devices is such a pain, somebody had the idea, 'Hey, if we could have a cable out, we could hook a PDA to it, and we could do a much better job. It would be a lot easier to change these things, '" Ward said.

And that is precisely what happened.

In AVC's new emission modification system, an RS-422 cable hangs from each precipitator device. A technician can easily walk up to a device and connect it to a Pocket PC via the Serial I/O Card and (because the card uses RS-232) an RS-232-to-RS-422 converter. Then, the technician can utilize user-friendly software on the Pocket PC to make necessary adjustments to smokestack emissions.

"Technology has made life simpler. Now that I have a Pocket PC, I can go up to each machine and interface with it," Illig said.

The new system, which is just starting to get implemented, presents many potential benefits.

For the first time, there is an easy, accurate, and cost-effective way of configuring the precipitator devices. With the mobile computing system, technicians need not bother trying to access or use the troublesome control panels. Also, the plants no longer need to install a cabled network that would be both expensive and too limited in data flow.

Besides cabling costs, plants can also save on labor expenses. "If you're making work easier, you're also saving money," Illig said. "These places have a loaded labor rate of $50-60 an hour. If you can save them an hour a day or three hours a day using the Pocket PC and Serial I/O Card, your return on investment is within the first quarter of the year."

The ability to more accurately modify smokestack emissions contributes to better pollution control, and this in turn can lead to tax breaks or other financial incentives from the government. "Power plant people get great amounts of money from the government for each percent reduction they have in smokestack emissions," Ward said. "We're talking six figures, big bucks."

Industry Innovators
Having the mobile computing system has helped AVC Specialists make a name for itself in the pollution control industry. With all the newfound attention, AVC Specialists has been receiving more inquiries from potential customers.

"Everyone is aware of what we do now, and that has changed their opinion about our company, because now we are more advanced than any of our competitors in the field," Illig said.