The car park at the Bretby Conference Centre was, once again, full to bursting with record attendances at this year’s MCERTS conference, workshops and exhibition.

Running over two days in April, MCERTS 2007 provided delegates with an opportunity to assimilate the latest developments in legislation, Standards and monitoring technologies in the field of air/gas testing and monitoring.

Key features of the 2007 event included an Environment Agency announcement that there will be an increased level of policing for manual stack sampling; a number of new products were launched at the Exhibition; there was a much higher level of international visitors; multiparameter monitoring technologies such as FTIR were a common theme in several of the presentations and workshops, and PCME was delighted to announce that it has been honoured with the Queen’s Award for Innovation.

The MCERTS events were originally created to provide a forum for the exchange of information relating to the Environment Agency’s monitoring certification scheme. However, the MCERTS events have grown into red-letter diary dates for anyone involved with air quality, including process operators (Part A and B), regulators, local authorities, instrument manufacturers, test houses, contractors, consultants, researchers and academics.

Conference
Rod Robinson from NPL opened MCERTS 2007 with a presentation entitled ‘FTIR for Emissions Monitoring Applications’. He explained that FTIR is a powerful technique offering simultaneous analysis of multiple compounds through the provision of a complete spectral measurement, but warned that care is needed in its application, whether as a continuous emission monitoring system (CEMS) or as a manual stack sampling/monitoring device.
Following an explanation of the FTIR technique, Robinson outlined some of the key aspects that should be taken into account in the use of FTIR. For example, FTIR produces a response that is corrected with software to remove background effects from materials such as moisture and carbon dioxide. Furthermore, instrument response is analysed by the software and compared with stored (traceable) spectral data. Consequently, any possible errors are less obvious than would be the case with more traditional techniques.
Further issues to be considered are the avoidance of condensation within the FTIR cell, spectroscopic interferences and the need to avoid losses in the sample line.

Two Standards exist relating to the use of FTIR in emissions monitoring – US EPA Method 320 and ASTM D6348. Robinson explained that the ASTM method is the most commonly used in the UK, but that it has its limitations. This is because it provides choices that that can lead to different results. Nevertheless, most people are using FTIR as an alternative to Standard Reference Methods or as a tool to investigate complex emissions at multiple sites.
NPL is involved with the UK’s STA (Source Testing Association) interest group for FTIR that is seeking to develop a new Method based on the ASTM. The group is also looking at ways to simplify the certification of new parameters on an already certified instrument.

Robinson explained that as a multi-gas analyser with a single sensor, calibration is relatively easy. In contrast, the following presentation given by Marc Coleman, also of NPL, outlined some of the potential advantages of Mass Spectrometry but conceded that multicomponent calibration is necessary and that this can take several days. In addition, the technology is currently not well suited to transportation between sites.

With standing room only, the most popular paper at the Conference was titled ‘MCERTS manual stack emission monitoring - the next 5 years’ presented by John Tipping, who manages MCERTS on behalf of the Environment Agency.
He said that the scheme has come a long way since its inception five years ago. MCERTS is now being used extensively, not just for sites the Environment Agency regulates. It also provides the means with which to implement the new quality assurance standard EN14181 and monitoring strategy standard EN 15259 in the UK. There are currently about 400 individuals and 32 organisations with MCERTS; it has been a great success but continues to evolve. However, feedback from customers over the last few months coupled with the results of unannounced visits has highlighted a number of areas that have failed to meet the MCERTS requirements and would benefit from further improvement. For example, contract review, in some cases, has not been as comprehensive as it should.
A number of changes have been made to the personnel competency standard that will both simplify and underpin the value of this element.
During a question and answer session, Tipping expressed a view that the stack testing market is, in some ways, too competitive. This is because a high level of competition is forcing down prices and thereby encouraging practitioners to cut costs at the expense of quality. He hoped that an increased level of policing will help to ensure that a quality service is provided at a fair price.

In order to further improve the quality of testing the Agency has implemented increased levels of policing of the scheme by both UKAS and the Environment Agency, including the introduction of unannounced visits to assess compliance with the MCERTS standard.
This was the main theme of a subsequent presentation by Jeff Ruddle, Accreditation Manager for UKAS.
The United Kingdom Accreditation Service is the sole national accreditation body recognised by government to assess, against internationally agreed standards, organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services. This includes organisations that provide stack testing and monitoring services, for whom UKAS accreditation applies to the individual test methods for which they have demonstrated the required level of competence.
UKAS uses ISO/IEC 17025 (General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories) for its assessments. This standard includes the requirements that testing and calibration laboratories have to meet in order to demonstrate that :-
1. they operate a quality system,
2. they are technically competent,
3. they are able to produce technically valid results
MCERTS is an elaboration of this generic accreditation.

UKAS also participated in the MCERTS exhibition providing advice to those seeking guidance on how to achieve UKAS 17025 accreditation to the MCERTS standard. Organisations are beginning to realise the commercial benefits that accreditation provides, through the assurance and reliability of data for stakeholders, as well as the professional standing that MCERTS accredited laboratories enjoy. Many existing UKAS customers enquired about extending their accreditation scope to new areas, in order to derive commercial advantage in new markets.

Looking back over the event as a whole Accreditation Manager, Jeff Ruddle said “MCERTS 2007 provided UKAS with an excellent opportunity to meet with potential new customers, catch up with existing ones and keep ourselves up to date with developments in the Stack Emissions community."

The final Conference presentation was given by William Averdieck, (Managing Director of PCME Ltd) who provided an overview of relevant technologies for particulate measurement and calibration of dust monitors using a Standard reference method.

Following the Conference, Averdieck expressed his delight that the MCERTS events have now gained international credibility representing one of the most important events in the world-wide emissions monitoring calendar, adding “MCERTS attracts a good balance of delegates; suppliers, consultants, regulators and industrial operators and provides them with an open and friendly environment in which to discuss issues of common interest. I also like the mixture of Conference, Exhibition and Workshops providing a good balance of both technical and practical information and advice.”

The MCERTS 2007 Gala Dinner provided an opportunity for the serious business of MCERTS certificate presentation followed by the less serious business of listening to TV comic Frankie Boyle.

Queen’s Award for Innovation
MCERTS 2007 provided PCME with an opportunity to announce that it has been honoured with the Queen’s Award for Innovation.
The award was granted for sustained innovation over a period of 5 years in the field of particulate emission monitors. Electrodynamic instruments are employed in thousands of industrial stacks worldwide, measuring particulates after bag filters and to control particulate emissions in plant within the metals, chemical, minerals and incineration industries.
Light scatter and cross stack optical instruments have also been developed for the incineration and power industries.

Commenting on the award, Averdieck said ‘This reflects our deep commitment to innovation in technology, development and market focus. We are absolutely delighted to be recognised for our success, since innovation has been driving our business for years. PCME’s particulate monitoring instruments are relied upon by industrial operators throughout the world and this award is recognition of the talent displayed by PCME staff in the development of innovative and reliable monitoring technologies.”

Workshops
More than 80 Workshops ran alongside the MCERTS Conference on both days, offering delegates the opportunity to select those that most accurately met their needs. Operating on a walk-in, walk-out basis, the Workshops were flexible and informal providing an opportunity to discuss practical issues with leading experts.

A number of the workshops continued the multiparameter monitoring theme of the Conference. For example, Quantitech presented the latest advances in FTIR monitoring technology, Enviro Technology Services PLC described applications for Opsis. Protea discussed the use of FTIR in the chemical industry and Sick (UK) explained how to meet EN14181 using both NDIR and FTIR.

EN14181 is a quality assurance Standard relating to automated measuring systems on stationary source emissions and its practical application in the field was a popular theme within many of the workshops. These include those being presented by PCME, AES, E.ON UK, RPS Health Safety and Environment, ABB, Signal Group, Envirosoft, CBISS, Sick (UK) and Environmental Compliance. Almost all of these presentations outlined the companies’ experiences with EN14181, offering hints and tips on how to achieve successful compliance.

Quantitech Managing Director, Keith Golding, said that his company received a great deal of interest in the company’s gas sampling and detection equipment, adding “We were particularly pleased to note the high profile that FTIR multicomponent monitoring was given in the MCERTS event as a whole. In tandem with the Conference presentations, we ran workshops on the use of FTIR in continuous emissions monitoring (both extractive and insitu) and manual stack monitoring applications. These Workshops were extremely well attended and provided us with the opportunity to launch the world’s first truly portable FTIR analyser, the Gasmet DX4030, which is able to provide simultaneous ambient measurements of multiple gases and is therefore ideal for occupational hygiene, leak detection and chemical spill response applications.
We also ran Workshops outlining the benefits of continuous Dioxins sampling using the new ‘DECS’ sampler from TCR Tecora. Despite the fact that continuous sampling is not usually required by Regulators at present, there was a high level of interest in this new technology, principally, we believe, because process operators have a genuine desire to be able to demonstrate that their Dioxins and Furans monitoring data is truly representative.”

Protea experienced a high level of interest in the company’s range of FTIR products, in particular the portable 204M and a fixed CEM for speciated VOCs, the 204C.
Accounts manager Mark Pinkney said “I was impressed with the number and quality of the delegates this year. As FTIR was one of the key topics of the show, our workshops were well attended and the show offered a unique forum to discuss the use of FTIR in stack emissions monitoring.”

Exhibition
Georgina Hill from ALcontrol Laboratories was very pleased with her company’s participation in MCERTS adding “We maintained a steady stream of interest for the duration; it was an invaluable opportunity for us to chat with existing and potential clients. We were able to familiarise ourselves with the latest instrumentation and technology on offer and to gain an improved understanding of the market. The seminars were interesting and informative and the Gala Dinner was well organised and extremely enjoyable. Many of the enquiries we received at the exhibition have since materialised into genuine business opportunities. A good event all round, see you there next time!”

Tim Wilkes from Servomex reports “The MCERTS show went well for us - we met with some existing customers and gained several new leads. Interestingly, we had quite a lot of interest in our combustion control products as well as our emissions monitoring analysers. This is perhaps a sign that industry is starting realise that more effective combustion control, which can reduce emissions at source as well as saving fuel, can provide real benefits. We also saw a couple of companies starting to join their instrumentation and process control thinking together, which I hope should allow advances in instrumentation to be turned into more efficient processes. On the product side, Servomex promoted its newly MCERTS approved 2700 combustion analyser, which can now be used for emissions monitoring on combustion plant that fall outside the WID (Waste Incineration Directive) or LCPD (Large Combustion Plant Directive) regulations. This means, for example, that crematoria can now use this product as a very cost effective and far lower maintenance alternative to extractive infra red systems”

Servomex believes that uptake amongst crematoria operators will be positive because the 2700 removes the need for expensive and high maintenance extractive sample systems. This is because the Servomex 2700 uses a close-coupled, low extracted volume design to measure oxygen and combustibles (or carbon monoxide equivalent, COe) on a wet basis. In addition, because the instrument provides reliable, fast readings (for the sensor head, T90<10s for oxygen and T90<20s for COe), it will also easily meet the requirements needed by a combustion control system - in fact over 3000 units of the 2700 are already in use for combustion control on power stations and process plants around the world.
James Carlyle, General Manager at Ashtead Technology Rentals, was delighted with his company’s participation in MCERTS 2007, commenting “This event is ideal for Ashtead because almost every delegate has a need for portable monitoring equipment at one time or another. Even those businesses with insitu monitors have a requirement for manual stack sampling, or to test for leaks, or to undertake occupational hygiene work, or to test other sites. Under all of these circumstances there is a compelling case to rent rather than buy because renting provides easy access to the latest technology without tying up capital. Every visitor to our stand had a genuine need for instrumentation and since renting is all we do, we like to think that we are the best. Our business has grown tenfold in two years, so it seems that our customers agree!
Our instrument rental catalogue was in high demand at MCERTS, and the products attracting the highest levels of interest were the Horiba PG250 multigas analyser, a Testo combustion gas analyser and portable FIDs.”
New Products
A number of new products and services were launched at MCERTS 2007 including Quantitech’s portable FTIR, a continuous dioxins sampler also from Quantitech, Durag’s stack monitors for particulates and mercury, and CEMdata software from Lowe Engineering. Calibration gas was a common theme in several of the new releases; Procal launched a new portable calibrator, Scott Speciality Gases launched a refillable aluminium cylinder, BOC launched new small lightweight cylinders together with a rucksack and Air Products launched a new backpack which can hold a 2 litre cylinder.
Procal demonstrated a new portable calibrator ( ~ 7Kg) that provides a novel solution to accurate on-site calibration and linearisation verification of installed analysers operating under EN14181 QAL 2 and AST. The unit is available in three versions; one has a divider for different gases, another provides water vapour and a third offers both features in one device. The calibrator is supplied in a customised back-pack, to enable safe use when accessing elevated platforms, which can hold additional water supplies to extend periods of operation to typically more than an hour. Procal’s Tony Bowers says “The portable calibrator is lightweight and simple to operate which is especially important in many stack monitoring applications; ideal customers will be process operators and other instrument manufacturers.”
Scott used MCERTS to launch their alternative to disposable gas canisters. Their 0.7 litre (110 gas litres) refillable aluminium cylinder is both kind to the environment and helps the user to avoid hazardous waste problems. This small, lightweight, portable cylinder is suitable for a wide range of pure and calibration gas mixtures and is aimed at stack testers and confined space monitoring applications. It can be specified with a tough protective carry case making it easy to use in the most difficult of situations, even the regulator simply screws on and off by hand. As an added bonus, each cylinder has its own unique barcode which allows the user to track the cylinder location anywhere in the world via the free, easy to use eScott online cylinder management system. The system will even send an email alert to warn the user when the gas is about to pass its certified use-by date.
In summary, the value of MCERTS 2007 has started to reach further afield, attracting visitors from all over the world. It generates a unique concentration of emission monitoring expertise and technology that appeals to an ever widening audience.
John Tipping said “MCERTS 2007 was the best yet” however, event organiser Marcus Pattison, says “MCERTS 2009 will be even better!”

ENDS
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