Eureka develops device to measure aerosol emissions

10 February 2005 09:20  [Source: ICIS news]

PARIS (CNI)--European research network Eureka has developed detection equipment that may assist chemical manufacturers in assessing the environmental effects of aerosol emissions, CNI learned Thursday.

 

A device called a “condensation particle counter with photo-induced nucleation” could prove extremely useful, Eureka said, in providing site-specific and detailed pollution data under the European Union’s (EU) future registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals (Reach) control regime.

 

Eureka said such measurements ordinarily are difficult “because the majority of the mass in fine aerosol particles is not directly emitted but formed through numerous reactions with other gases in the atmosphere.”

 

It added: “These reactions are extremely difficult to define as many reactions are short lived and others produce minute particles in the atmosphere. It is these secondary aerosol particles that create environmental problems; these can now be detected thanks to the research in this project.”

 

Eureka said the device “will provide reliable aerosol data, the lack of which has until now hindered the understanding of the formation of secondary aerosols and evaluation of ways to regulate and prevent environmental damage.”

 

The device can measure particles as small as 5 nanometres (nm) in diameter and in concentrations between 0.01 and 105 particles per cubic centimetre.

 

The equipment’s developers include Lithuania’s Institute of Physics/Environmental Physics & Chemistry Laboratory and Joint Stock Company Eltera, and Finland’s University Of Helsinki, Dekati Ltd, Genano Ltd and the Finnish Institute Of Occupational Health.

 

With 36 member nations, Eureka is a pan-European inter-governmental research funding organization founded in 1985 to help develop innovative products and processes to advance European business and technology.

By: Keith Nuthall
+44 20 8652 3214

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