DUBAI, UAE, 3 April 2020: Air quality in the Middle East is negatively impacted by various factors, said Khaled Salem, President, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems MENA, who pointed out that these factors range from natural causes, such as the geographic climate, exposure to high levels of suspended particles in the air as well as seasonal and severe dust and sand storms, to man-made reasons, such as the use of oil and heavy fuels for power generation. As such, Salem said, air quality has emerged as a key issue in government agendas across the Middle East, with the UAE’s National Vision 2021 setting a target to raise air quality from its current level to 90% by 2021. “To meet this goal, the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment is working with partners to bolster national efforts through various means,” he said, “such as the use of state-of-the-art systems and techniques and the adoption of best practices.”

Elaborating on the company’s strategy to positively contribute to the improvement of air quality, Salem said that MHPS deploys a range of strategies to mitigate environmental impact in such situations. “At one end, we minimise emissions production, where our state-of-the-art combustion technologies are designed to optimise the fuel-combustion process,” he said. “At another, we capture emissions produced in the combustion process, prior to being released into the air.” In this second step, Salem said, the company leverages its suite of Air Quality Control Systems, which features a number of technologies, each tailored to capture a specific category of emissions, and can be further customised to specific site conditions to ensuring maximum effectiveness. “MHPS is a global leader in AQCS technology that enables power generation and industrial plants to meet stringent air quality and emission standards with solutions that enable even fossil fuel plants to meet environmental regulations,” he said. “Our AQCS solutions use selective catalytic reduction systems to remove up to 95% of nitrogen oxides emitted from power plant boilers.” Salem explained that electrostatic precipitators remove the dust from the exhaust gases, and flue gas de-sulphurisation systems remove up to 99% of harmful sulphur dioxide.