IMPRESS 2: Standardised pollutant measurements to meet the requirements of current and future air quality regulations 2
One of the main concerns of the companies and factories which industrial processes involve gas emissions to the atmosphere is the need to establish a metrologically robust framework of standardised measurement methods to control their environment pollutant contributions. This matter is linked to the increasingly stringent Emission Limit Values (ELVs) for key air pollutants set by European Directives looking to reduce premature deaths and money waste attributable to this troublesome effect. IMPRESS 2 project address this challenge by proposing innovating measurement methods for new measurands (like ammonia, formaldehyde, particulate matter, hydrogen fluoride and other greenhouse gases) developing future techniques for hereinafter stringent legislation.
This project is funded by EURAMET’s European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (EMPIR) and apart from some of the most prestigious metrology institutes from Europe among its partners, renowned environment research institutes take part in the project. The scope of the emissions that it is pretended to encompass cover from large scale processes, such as power stations, all the way down to domestic boilers burning fuels such as wood pellet. Concerning the main industrial processes remarked previously there are some significant issues with the capabilities of techniques for fulfil their legal responsibilities to enforce ELV by Standard Reference Methods (SRM). Moreover, in small-scale biomass there is no SRMs for many pollutant compounds and in small ducts installations there is a lack of any work identifying and quantifying sources of gas leakages.
EURAMET, the European Association of National Metrology Institutes is a metrology-focused European initiative of coordinated R&D that facilitates closer integration of national research initiatives. It is integrated into the framework of the EU research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020. EMPIR seeks to unite the efforts of European metrology institutes to universities, companies and research centres. LIR-UC3M participates in this consortium with the Spanish Metrology Centre (CEM).
In this project LIR-UC3M keeps a significant role described in the Work Package (WP) 2: “Biomass Combustion Emissions Measurement”. The aim of this WP is to evaluate and validate measurement methods for the characterisation of emissions from wood and non-wood biomass combustion for a wide range of pollutants. Namely, LIR-UC3M will investigate the use of hyperspectral techniques for standoff detection and quantification of chosen pollutant emissions using the FTIR hyperspectral imaging system available at our laboratory with the strengthened processing stages.