CAEM Earns Clean Air Award

Clean Air Engineering-Maritime (CAEM) has earned the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) Clean Air Award for 2016 in the category of Innovative Clean Air Technology. The award recognizes CAEM’s efforts to reduce air pollution in the Port of Los Angeles through their Maritime Emissions Treatment System (METS-1).

CAEM was one of only two companies recognized for innovative clean air technology at the 28th annual Clean Air Awards. The South Coast AQMD is the air pollution control agency for all of Orange County and the urban portions of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Its annual Clean Air Awards recognize individuals and organizations that have made outstanding clean air contributions toward improving air quality in Southern California.

In July of last year, CAEM, in collaboration with Tri-Mer Corporation, launched their first generation METS-1 as the first CARB-approved alternative to “plugging in” to shore-side power. The barge-mounted system captures and treats more than 90 percent of PM, NOx, SOx, and related diesel pollutants emitted.

Earlier this year, CAEM won a competitive bid for the emissions capturing portion of the Pasha Green Omni Terminal Demonstration Project in the Port of Los Angeles and is scheduled to commission a shore-side variant of their METS system, the ShoreCat, in early 2017.

CAEM currently operates at the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach.

“The METS-1 has already had an immediate impact on the communities surrounding the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach,” said Nick Tonsich, CAEM principal and San Pedro native. “Over the last year it has eliminated, on average, one ton of emissions per day in the Port of LA, and in the long term, the METS system could have a profound impact on the entire shipping industry and our global environment.”