In recent months, Arpa Piemonte, in collaboration with a national laboratory group, participated in an intercomparison of chimney measurements at a production plant in the province of Cuneo.
The event saw the participation of 12 technical specialists from the Agency, 6 technicians from the laboratory group and involved 13 automatic instruments and 6 sampling lines.
The intercomparison was organized to compare the measurements of the new analyzers purchased by the Agency for the measurement of combustion, over 24-hour measurement periods in a real emission context, subjecting them to both critical operating conditions and possible analytical interferences, which cannot be replicated in a typical controlled laboratory context.
The measurement campaign conducted also involved the application of reference methods for the search for organic micropollutants and for the measurement of the physical parameters of the gaseous flow (speed, temperature, humidity).
The comparison returned useful information to minimize the errors that could arise in these measurement contexts, in favor of greater precision and accuracy.
The following graph highlights how the concentrations of oxygen (expressed as a percentage) and carbon monoxide (expressed in mg/Nm3) acquired by all the Agency’s analyzers during the 24 hours of measurement, were characterized by precision and accuracy, even in severe operating conditions typical of an industrial process.
