Metrology to support zero pollution from industrial emissions

The EU’s Zero Pollution action plan aims at reducing pollution in air, water and soil to levels no longer considered harmful to health and natural ecosystems. As part of this, the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) was revised in 2024 to IED 2.0, which includes a magnitude reduction in the permissible Associated Emission Level (AEL) of a range of pollutants, affecting 52 000 industrial processes. The use of measurement uncertainty for compliance assessment is also included, as well as a section on pollutants of emerging concern, such as Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), linked to liver disease, kidney disease and cancer. However, the standard reference methods (SRMs) for measuring AEL’s of some pollutants lack validation and there is no European guidance on combining uncertainties when some components are close to the detection limit. There is also little knowledge on which industrial processes emit PFAS, at what concentrations, and no European method exists for measuring PFAS emissions.

This project will perform field campaigns at industrial sites to validate SRMs for formaldehyde and hydrogen fluoride. It will also determine the use of uncertainty in legal compliance assessment and detail these in two guidance documents. A method will be developed to measure PFAS and used to identify key PFAS species from real industrial processes.

As well as supporting the key IED 2.0 changes, enabling European industries to demonstrate compliance, project results will also contribute to a range of standards in this area and, in the long run, provide the tools to progress the Zero Pollution action plan towards its goal.