Diffuse gaseous emissions monitoring - Field experiment and interpretation

Summary

Diffuse gaseous emissions - particularly of VOCs - are a concern for many manufacturers. They are very often among the discharges from installations, and monitoring them is an environmental and regulatory issue. Unlike channelled emissions, it is still difficult to measure these diffuse emissions. RECORD therefore wanted to carry out a field study to help solve this problem. The work carried out here consisted of testing several measurement campaigns on an industrial site, using several techniques and methodologies for quantifying these diffuse VOC emissions. The results of the study were positive, showing the relevance of certain techniques (even in conditions of low VOC emissions) and the feasibility of implementing them on site. This work could become a milestone in the development of an overall methodology for estimating annual flows of VOCs emitted by an industrial site.