How do nitrosamines impact sampling methods?

Taking place from 20th to 22nd September 2023 in sunny Barcelona, CEM 2023 will be our largest emissions monitoring event to date, with more exhibitors and presentations than ever! With 25 years of experience behind it and regular attendance from all around the world, this year’s conference will be CEM’s highly anticipated return to live events – and once again, our Scientific Committee have excelled themselves, putting together a jam-packed programme of talks and workshops delivered by thought-leaders, regulators and industry veterans from all across this global sector. As such, CEM 2023’s conference programme features representatives from many of the major national research institutions, with talks from members of the European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau (EIPPCB), a department of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre; the Environmental Protection Agency (United States); the National Institute for Industrial and Environmental Risks (France); the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (India); the Technical Research Centre of Finland; Italy’s Institute for Energy System Research (RSE); and National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom).  

On Day 1 of CEM 2023, the NPL’s Dr. Hadyn Barros will share some of his experience on the impact of nitrosamines on two sampling methods. There are still considerable knowledge gaps surrounding the metrology of amine-based technologies utilised in carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) settings, whereby there are no documentable reference methods for sampling and monitoring readily available. As a research-and-development project, the NPL have focused on the basic physicochemical properties and behaviour of amines and nitrosamines as well as their impact on the development and validation of CCUS methods. This research illustrates the anticipated difficulties which arise through sampling and measuring nitrosamines’ emissions due to their mentioned complex physicochemical properties and behaviours. The theoretical aspect of Barros' presentation will be comprised of the most relevant nitrosamines expected to be found in CCUS environments, while the experimental work is based on a select group of those. The use of periodic monitoring methods for monitoring CCUS emissions will be discussed. Through a literature-review, significant variations in the values of physical and chemical properties assigned to each chemical were found, some differing by orders of magnitude. This has a potential impact on the interpretation of the nitrosamines’ behaviour and on the development of sampling methodologies. The possible origin of these discrepancies are discussed and strategies are suggested to avoid these ambiguous values among the original large data-set. These strategies are based on well-known physics and chemistry as well as simple statistics. Most probable issues and foreseeable scenarios will be summarised, contributing to the development of the sampling and monitoring methods required for CCUS technologies. 

With two rooms running sessions in parallel over all three days of the conference, attendees to CEM 2023 will have full access to a whole host of presentations that will provide process operators, plant managers, laboratory technicians, instrument users and apprentices with the latest information on developments in emissions monitoring and measuring applications, regulations and technologies.  

If you’re interested in attending this year’s most exciting emission monitoring event, just click here to get your pass to CEM 2023 today.