MTS Launches New System to Monitor Air Quality at Industrial Sites
Russian telecom company MTS is launching a new system for monitoring concentrations of industrial gases. While MTS Ekologiya (MTS Ecology) previously focused primarily on how factory emissions affect residents of nearby cities, it is now expanding its reach to protect the health of people directly at industrial sites.
Industrial emissions are considered the leading environmental threat by more than 60% of Russians. MTS is going beyond simply recording pollution events by managing risks in real time.
Industrial Safety 2.0
MTS already operates an AI-powered environmental monitoring service deployed in several Russian regions. It analyzes water- and air-quality data and forecasts negative environmental impacts up to two days in advance. The system can help companies avoid not only environmental hazards but also financial losses ranging from 34.4 million to 370 million rubles (about $410,000 to $4.4 million) annually.
That technology, which monitors areas outside industrial facilities, has now been integrated with a new system operating directly at industrial hotspots. Sensors are installed at potentially hazardous locations to detect specific gases associated with petrochemical, metallurgical or mining operations. The data is sent to the MTS analytics platform for processing, after which protective mechanisms are triggered automatically: supply ventilation can switch on to dilute hazardous vapors, shutoff valves can close, or other engineering systems at the facility can be activated. This helps reduce concentrations of harmful substances without completely shutting down the production process, minimizing financial losses from downtime.
A Unified Digital Ecosystem
In 2025, emissions from industrial facilities fell 2.9% to 16.59 million metric tons. At the same time, companies increased capital investment in air protection by 15% to 170.6 billion rubles (about $2.05 billion). In March 2023, Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment launched a federal digital platform for companies equipping their smokestacks with automated sensors.
Norilsk’s high-profile pollution crisis, during which roughly 99% of the city’s population was breathing air with extremely high pollution levels, also became a catalyst for the widespread adoption of digital monitoring systems. For example, the Cherepovets Steel Mill, one of the world’s largest steelmaking facilities, uses an environmental monitoring digital platform from MegaFon. Meanwhile, Krasnoyarsk Region is expanding its network of automated ambient air-quality monitoring stations. The stations measure concentrations of major pollutants around the clock while also recording meteorological parameters. All data is updated every 20 minutes and made publicly available. Similar but larger-scale systems have already demonstrated their effectiveness in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Air Under Control
According to a survey by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, or VCIOM, the environmental issues Russians are most concerned about are the condition of water resources, cited by 44%; waste management, 43%; and air quality, 41%.
Four of the 12 cities covered by the federal Chistyy vozdukh (Clean Air) project have already met their targets. In 2025, nearly 190,000 atmospheric air tests were conducted across the 12 cities. Maximum permissible concentration limits were exceeded in 1,900 samples, representing less than 1% of all observations.
Citizens are keeping watch on air quality as well. In Ryazan, a community-operated sensor monitors air cleanliness. Its gas analyzer can identify more than 260 substances, ranging from hydrogen sulfide to formaldehyde. An online summary, date-based archive and daily charts are available to all Ryazan residents. Kemerovo, meanwhile, is launching its own “digital dispatcher” for environmental conditions. The new project will combine data from major industrial companies, municipal services and meteorologists. Emissions information will flow into a single database and be analyzed automatically, giving Kemerovo residents an objective and timely picture of local air quality.
MTS environmental technologies give industrial-site managers a comprehensive view of conditions, allowing them to make informed decisions about optimizing production processes and assessing actual risks to employees. One of the system’s main advantages is its integration with existing outdoor environmental monitoring systems. A company gets a unified dataset covering conditions both inside production facilities and beyond the sanitary protection zone. Dispatch teams will be able to quickly distinguish routine process emissions from accidental leaks and identify the source of a problem with a high degree of accuracy.
The potential market for the technology is enormous, spanning chemical, oil and gas, metallurgical and energy companies. Russia already has more than 5,000 enterprises using the Industrial Internet of Things.
