Advancing accuracy in gas


analysis By Gary Yates, Air Products European product manager for the analytical market


As environmental legislation continues to tighten, emissions testing and monitoring certainly doesn’t get any easier and demand for accurate gas analysis has never been greater. But how is the gas industry responding to the challenge to improve accuracy?


The drive for accuracy is driven by the growing demands of environmental legislation. Industry is currently required to comply with a highly complex set of legislative emissions limits and targets, reporting their data at national and international levels. At the same time, the number of pollutants facing scrutiny is growing and advanced methods of gas analysis are increasingly required in order to measure multiple components at low concentrations.


This legislative change is continuing. The EU Industrial Emissions Directive was approved on 7 July 2010, strengthening the pollution limits that industrial installations will have to comply with and introducing stricter limits on pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulphur dioxide (SO2). Installations have until 2016 to comply with the stricter limits.


There are also plans to extend the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Launched in 2005, the scheme is in force across member states and covers carbon dioxide emissions from a range of installations. Airlines will join the scheme in 2012 and the scheme will also be expanded to the petrochemicals, ammonia and aluminium industries and to additional gases in 2013.


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In addition, the EU’s registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals (REACH) legislation is progressing and the deadline for the first registrations passed at the end of November 2010. In 2011, the chemical industry is putting together a plan to review the legislation, which will be undertaken by the European Commission in 2012.


The emissions testing industry realises that it cannot afford to watch and wait for these legislative developments to take shape. Demand for highly accurate and reliable measurements is ongoing and this has already led to developments in the world of specialty gases.


Increasing shelf-life One of the most interesting developments to take place recently is a move to extend the shelf-life of the gas mixtures, which are commonly used in analytical calibration. Until recently, gas mixtures – some of which may contain up to 100 components – had an industry-wide maximum shelf-life limit of five years. Developments by Air Products in advanced cylinder treatments and in the way these mixtures are produced have now allowed this limit to be doubled to ten years, which means laboratory analysts can store and use them for longer, with total confidence of their stability.


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