CEM - Abstract

Abstract Information :

Despite the introduction of more and more stringent regulatory requirements in the European Union and in the rest of the World, the level of air pollution remains critical in many places, especially in the urban areas. The impacts of current legislations in different sectors (e.g. static emissions, transports) has been significant, but there are still some gaps and the Medium Combustion Plants Directive (MCPD) has been designed to close one of these gaps. The MCPD entered into force in December 2015 and introduced new periodic monitoring requirements for existing and new combustion plants in the net thermal input range of 1 to 50 MW. The European Commission estimated approximately 143,000 medium combustion plants in the EU, which are used for a wide variety of applications, including for example electricity generation, domestic/residential heating and cooling, heat/steam generation for industrial processes.

The MCPD is intended to improve air quality and reduce the inputs of pollutants on human health by controlling critical emissions to air from medium sized stationary combustion plants, most of which is in urban areas. Emission Limit Values (ELVs) are defined for Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) and Particulate Matters (PM); Carbon Monoxide (CO) must be monitored as well, even though this is not subject to an ELV.

Monitoring requirements are not defined in details in the MCPD, requiring national guidance for example on which equipment, methods and quality assurance procedures will be needed to ensure compliance. This may pose significant implementation challenges associated with the suitability of the manual periodic measurements, including sampling and analysis processes. To complicate even further the situation, the MCPD does allow competent authorities in the member states to specify continuous monitoring as an alternative to periodic monitoring. Moreover, for units fitted with pollution abatement equipment - i.e. where aggregated MCPs are exhausting through a common stack - the operator is required to demonstrate that the abatement system is continuously effective.

This paper will provide an overview of the current legislation framework, including possible overlaps with the Industrial Emission Directive (IED) and will look at the pure gases and gas mixtures, their packages and the gas supply systems needed to ensure a reliable and accurate use of the emission measurement systems. Moreover, aspects of technical compliance to applicable safety standards and metrological traceability requirements will also be covered.