Up in smoke [emissions monitoring]

As emissions legislation comes into force, it is important to ensure that the wrong monitoring system does not choke profits. On 2 December 2004, the British Standards Institution published one of the most significant and demanding standards ever to be developed by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). First approved in October 2003, BS:EN14181 - Stationary Source Emissions - Quality Assurance of Automated Measuring Systems - will have far-reaching consequences for regulators, equipment manufacturers and process operators. The new standard tackles air pollution by focusing on a tighter monitoring of emissions, and describes quality assurance procedures to ensure that continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMS) can meet EU legislative requirements. However, many in the industry are still unsure exactly how and why they are actually affected by EN14181. The introduction of EN14181 and the BREF guidance is going to present the power generation industry with significant and potentially costly challenges of implementation. Having the right equipment to optimise environment and process efficiency will be key to future success and profitability.