The EMRP project IMPRESS - Innovative Metrology for Pollution Regulation of Emissions from Stacks and area Sources - will address metrology needs in stack emissions monitoring, annual mass emission reporting and area source emission quantification.
Accurate measurement of emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere is vital in enabling action to control and reduce air pollution in order to protect European citizens and the Environment. The European Climate Change Programme (ECCP) is targeting an 80-95% reduction in emissions by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. However, current evidence shows that emissions are only likely to be reduced to 30% by 2030, hence we are not on track and more stringent emission limits will be necessary as will measurement methods to enable monitoring and enforcement.
Monitoring of emissions of pollutants to air to ensure compliance with EU directives and national legislation is the key to enforcing emission limits and thereby enabling their reduction and control. Industry needs to measure and report emissions for regulatory purposes including assessing stack emissions against concentration limit values, reporting annual mass emissions, and determining emissions of GHGs from area sources.
The work in the project will cover traceable measurements of pollutants in stacks, assessing the capabilities of current reference methods to meet the challenges of lower emission limit values, developing test facilities within the European NMI community to test and validate methods and to support the development of next generation monitoring methods. It will develop improved approaches to determining the uncertainties in flow measurement and in annual mass emission values. And it will provide protocols and methodologies for measuring and monitoring emissions from area (including fugitive sources), including the emissions of GHGs such as methane.
For further information, view our e-Learning course on emission monitoring metrology here:
The uncertainty spreadsheet used in the webinar is available from the Source Testing Association