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Creating a clean, safe environment

Metrology for Chemical Pollutants in Air

Accurate data is essential to monitoring and managing the environment and enabling the design and implementation of effective environmental regulation. Recognising the hazards posed by pollution, the EU has developed an extensive body of legislation which establishes health-based standards and objectives for pollutants in air, water and soil. Key to the successful implementation of these policies is an underpinning measurement infrastructure that ensures that environmental data is robust and consistent across monitoring networks, across national borders and over time.

Measurement challenges
Environmental regulation evolves over time as our understanding increases of the effects of pollutants on human health and the wider environment. This poses an ongoing challenge to the measurement infrastructure. As allowable pollutant levelsdecrease and new types of pollutant are identified, measurement capabilities must be constantly improved to support robust and fit-for-purpose pollutant monitoring and mitigation. This requires both improved measurement accuracy across the measurement infrastructure and the development of innovative, practical and cost-effective measurement technologies. EMRP research is improving the quality of environmental monitoring data to ensure the effective implementation of European regulation for example in the 'Metrology for Chemical Pollutants in Air' project.

Air quality

The EMRP project ENV01 'Metrology for Chemical Pollutants in Air' addressed the need to assess the quality of outdoor and indoor air. The European Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC) sets challenging limit values and data quality objectives for the measurement of pollutants in ambient air and air monitoring networks have struggled to comply with the objectives because of the lack of metrological transfer standards at and below the pollutant limit values specified. In addition, governments are starting to address the quality of indoor air where harmonised regulation does not exist.

The EMRP project developed:

Preparation methods for calibration gases for the pollutants SO2, NO and NO2 at or near the limit values of the regulation.
A certified protocol for preparation and validation of 'zero gas' for zero-ing analytical instrumentation. This is essential for measurements of pollutants at very low concentrations.
Reference methods and reference materials for harmful (semi-) volatile organic compounds ((S)VOCs), which originate from emissions from building materials and contaminate indoor air. Preparation methods for (S)VOC transfer standards at levels of interest for emission testing laboratories were validated and a reference material reproducing the gas emission behaviour typical of a construction product was developed for the quality control of emission test chamber measurements.
Innovative micro-sensors for air quality monitoring based on graphene. Two types of graphene sensors were tested for the measurement of ambient levels of NO2 and a protocol for the evaluation of microsensors was developed and implemented. A clustered system of micro-sensors, was developed and evaluated as a potential cost-effective method for the measurement of pollutants under the Air Quality Directive. It demonstrated that an artificial neural network of calibrated sensors achieved the best accuracy.

Research impact
The new traceable measurement capabilities will improve comparability of data between the air quality reference laboratories responsible for quality assurance and quality control of the air monitoring networks ineach country. The project worked with members of the European Network of Air Quality Reference Laboratories (AQUILA) throughout the project to understand their needs and share the research outputs. The new calibration facilities and tools are being trialled in air quality networks in Switzerlandand it is expected that the zero-gas protocol will be incorporated in an amended ISO standard for gas purity.

Supporting roadside pollution monitoring

Congested areas such as city centres suffer from elevated levels of certain pollutants, including NO2, which is associated with adverse effects on health including reduced life expectancy. As part of the project, METAS in Switzerland developed a new traceable mobile NO2 permeation generator, which can be used in the field to directly calibrate instruments monitoring harmful roadside pollution, improving the reliability of their measurements.

Research impact
The METAS NO2 generator has already been used by the City of Zürich Health and Environment Department and in other Swiss cities. METAS and LNI Swissgas, a leading manufacturer of environmental gas calibration systems and gas generators, have been awarded funding to commercialise a novel compact NO2 permeation generator, which incorporates features of the METAS prototype into LNI Swissgas existing product, resulting in a fully traceable and user-friendly transfer standard. The new portable calibration method provides crucial support to the expansion of Europe's air monitoring networks, more comprehensive pollution monitoring and effective protection of Europe's citizens.

Project ENV01 MACPoll
The EMRP project 'Metrology for Chemical Pollutants in Air' started in 2011 with a consortium of 12 participating institutes from all over Europe. Project coordinator was Annarita Baldan from VSL (The Netherlands). The project was supported by five researcher grants.The project is part of EURAMET's European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP), which is jointly funded by the European Union and the EMRP participating countries within EURAMET.
A list of all Metrology for Environmentprojects can be found here >>

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Date

2016-09-16