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European project: Metrology for ammonia in ambient air (MetNH3)

Conference Paper · September 2015

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16 authors, including:

Andrea Pogány Christine Braban

Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
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Volker Ebert Valerio Ferracci

Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt Cranfield University
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TITLE in English: European project: Metrology for ammonia in ambient air (MetNH3)
TITRE en français: Projet européen: Métrologie pour l’ammoniac dans l’air ambiant
(MetNH3)
Key Words: ammonia, metrology, traceability, gas standards, optical transfer standards
Mots Clés: ammoniac, métrologie, traçabilité, étalon de gaz, étalon optique de transfer
1 2 3 1 4 5
Andrea Pogány , David Balslev-Harder , Christine Braban , Volker Ebert , Valerio Ferracci , Tuomas Hieta , Daiana
6 1 4 6 7 3 8
Leuenberger , Nils Lüttschwager , Nick Martin , Céline Pascale , Carlo Tiebe , Marsailidh Twigg , Olavi Vaittinen , Janneke
9 10 6
van Wijk , Klaus Wirtz , Bernhard Niederhauser
1
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Bundesallee 100, 38116 Braunschweig, Germany
2
Dansk Fundamental Metrologi A/S (DFM), Matematiktorvet 307, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
3
Natural Environment Research Council, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (NERC), EH26 0QB, Bush Estate, Penicuik,
Midlothian, United Kingdom
4
National Physical Laboratory (NPL), TW11 0LW, Teddington, Middlesex, United Kingdom
5
Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Centre for Metrology (VTT-MIKES), Tekniikantie 1, 02150 Espoo, Finland
6
Federal Institute of Metrology (METAS), Lindenweg 50, 3003 Bern-Wabern, Switzerland
7
Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und –prüfung (BAM), Unter den Eichen 87, 12250 Berlin, Germany
8
University of Helsinki, Department of Chemistry, A.I. Virtasen aukio 1, P.O. Box 55, 00014, Helsinki, Finland
9
Dutch Metrology Institute (VSL), Thijsseweg 11, 2629 JA Delft, The Netherlands
10
Umweltbundesamt (UBA), Wörlitzer Platz 1, 06844 Dessau-Roßlau, Germany

Measuring ammonia amount fractions in ambient air is a key issue. Ammonia has harmful effects on biodiversity and
human health through acidification of natural waters and soils, additional nitrogen input to ecosystems and secondary aerosol
1
formation. The European Directive 2001/81/EC on “National Emission Ceilings for Certain Atmospheric Pollutants (NEC)”
regulates ammonia emissions in EU member states. However, there is a lack of regulations regarding applicable analytical
2
methods, measurement uncertainty, traceability and quality assurance procedures. As shown in a key comparison in 2007 ,
there are discrepancies even between reference materials provided by European National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) at
amount fraction levels up to three orders of magnitude higher than ambient. MetNH3 (Metrology for ammonia in ambient air),
3
a three-year project that started in June 2014 in the framework of the European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP) ,
aims to reduce the gap between requirements set by the European emission regulations and current state-of-the-art of
analytical methods and reference materials.
The project is organized in three technical work packages. Work package 1 generates reference gas mixtures by both
static and dynamic gravimetric preparation methods. The aim of this work package is to achieve traceability and reduce
uncertainties of reference gas mixtures. The aimed uncertainty is < 1 % for static mixtures at the 10 to 100 µmol/mol level, and
< 3 % for portable dynamic generators in the 0 to 500 nmol/mol amount fraction range. Special emphasis is put on the
minimization of adsorption losses. In work package 2 optical methods will be developed. A commercial extractive
spectrometer and a self-developed open path spectrometer will be examined from a metrological point of view and their
applicability as traceable optical transfer standards will be evaluated. In our presentation we show the set-up of the potential
optical transfer standards and first results on the evaluation of their detection limit, response time and measurement
uncertainty. Selected reference gas mixture(s) and optical transfer standard(s) form work package 1 and 2 will be used in
work package 3, which deals with dissemination to field measurement techniques. We present two test facilities that are being
developed in this work package to serve as the infrastructure of comparison and validation experiments. After establishing
agreement between the developed standards of work package 1 and 2, further optical and wet chemical analyzers, as well as
denuders and passive samplers will be evaluated in these test facilities.
The work has been carried out in the framework of the EMRP. The EMRP is jointly funded by the EMRP participating
countries within EURAMET and the European Union.

1 rd
Directive 2001/81/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2001 on national emission ceilings for
certain atmospheric pollutants.
2
Adriaan M. H. van der Veen et al. International comparison CCQM-K46: Ammonia in nitrogen, Metrologia (2010) 47 08023
doi: 10.1088/0026-1394/47/1A/08023
3
http://www.euramet.org/index.php?id=emrp

Prénom, Nom / First name, Name Andrea Pogány, David Balslev-Harder, Christine Braban, Volker Ebert, Valerio
Société / Company
Adresse / Address
CP Ville / Zip Code - City
Pays / Country
E-mail
Téléphone / Phone
View publication stats
Données obligatoires sur l’auteur(s) / Compulsory datas concerning the author(s)
Ferracci, Tuomas Hieta, Daiana Leuenberger, Nils Lüttschwager, Nick Martin, Céline
Pascale, Carlo Tiebe, Marsailidh Twigg, Olavi Vaittinen, Janneke van Wijk, Klaus
Wirtz, Bernhard Niederhauser
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt
Bundesallee 100
38116 Braunschweig
Germany
andrea.pogany@ptb.de
+49 531 5923256