Emissions of particulates from industrial plant, such as energy from waste plant

Emissions of particulates from industrial plant, such as energy from waste plant have attracted growing attention in recent years. There has been increasing focus on fine particulate, which is classified as <2.5 micrometres in diameter. Sophisticated monitoring equipment is available to measure total particulate emissions in stack gas emissions, however limitations with the gravimetric standard reference method means there is limited data on the size distributions of particles emitted, particularly where particulate concentrations are low . Whilst conservative assumptions are built into reporting fine particle emissions this may exaggerate emissions of fine particulate matter associated with industrial emissions, particularly from the combustion of clean fuel sources such as natural gas. The Environment Agency (EA) would like to explore the advancements in particulate matter monitoring to improve available data on fine particulate emissions from regulated source to inform future monitoring approaches.