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Waste Incineration Directive and Dust Monitoring

Dust Monitoring Systems Must Provide Accurate and Representative Measurements without Drift over Time

INTRODUCTION

MONITORING STANDARDS EN 14181, and EN 13284-2, a supporting standard, set out the quality assurance requirements for continuous emissions monitors as interpreted by the U.K.´s Environment Agency. Further guidance is provided in Technical Guidance Note (Monitoring) M20 — quality assurance of continuous emissions monitoring systems — application of EN 14181 and EN 13284-2, and Method Implementation Documents MID 14181 and MID 13284-2.

Together, these documents stipulate how an operator can be sure that the continuous emissions monitoring systems he has in place “are suitable at the outset and perform sufficiently to continue meeting the uncertainty requirements of the Waste Incineration Directive”.

COMPLIANCE WITH EN 14181

EN 14181 requires the continuous emissions monitoring system to satisfy quality assurance standards on four separate levels/occasions:

QAL 1:

requires the installation of a suitable continuous emissions monitor. There are two criteria for suitability:

  • Certain performance characteristics, such as linearity, cross-sensitivity, response time, reliability, and response behaviour. To achieve this, the continuous emissions monitor must be certified under the MCERTS regime in the U.K. or the German TUV scheme.
  • Ability of the continuous emissions monitor to monitor accurately under the specific operating conditions at the installation.

The Zeta 5000, presently in test for accreditaion under this scheme, is designed to meet and exceed these standards.

QAL 2:

requires that the continuous emissions monitors be both installed, and calibrated and validated, correctly

QAL 3:

deals with continuous quality assurance, and requires on-going monitoring to confirm that the continuous emissions monitor´s precision, and drift remain within the original QAL 1 requirements.

Annual Surveillance Test (AST):

requires annual confirmation of the continuing validity of the calibration undertaken in QAL 2.

CONCLUSION

While the installation of a certified continuous emissions monitor is mandatory, operators still need to be certain that the performance characteristics of their instruments are compatible with the specific requirements of the installation, in order to be sure of representative calibration which will remain accurate over time.