ELECTROCHEMISTRY: AN ACCEPTABLE TECHNOLOGY FOR MONITORING EMISSIONS OF TOXIC GASES IN ACCORDANCE WITH EU DIRECTIVES

Introduction

The European Union has adopted directives on the incineration of waste and on emissions to air from large combustion plants. These directives require that monitoring of emissions be carried out in accordance with CEN standards or, where these are not available, suitable ISO standards, national standards or international standards.

The latest standards do not prescribe specific measurement techniques; they state requirements for various measurement parameters. This means that plant operators are free to adopt novel methods as they become available, rather than waiting for changes in the laws. Even in the USA, notoriously shy of new CEM developments, the EPA's Environmental Technology Verification Program (ETV) “was created to accelerate the entrance of new environmental technologies into the domestic and international marketplace.”

Some authorities within the EU still reject the use of electrochemical cells for toxic gas measurements. This can no longer be justified when a number of instruments based on this technology have been approved by respected authorities. The latest analysers employing Advanced Dual Sensor Technology (ADST) have minimal drift and include sophisticated selfchecking algorithms. They have demonstrated high reliability in a wide range of applications including coal- and gas-fired boilers, incinerators and gas turbines.