TEOM particulate monitor passes equivalence tests

Air Monitors’ TEOM 1405-F and 1405-DF ambient particulate monitors have successfully completed a series of laboratory and field trials in the UK and Germany.

The trials were part of a combined UK-Germany PM Equivalence Programme to achieve both MCERTS and German UBA certification for the measurement of PM2.5 and PM10 without the need for the correction factors required by many other techniques.

Air Monitors’ managing director Jim Mills said: “This is great news for ambient air quality monitoring in the UK because the 1405-F provides the benefits of TEOM technology with the advantage of volatiles and non-volatiles measurement by FDMS – data which is essential for an understanding of the nature and source of PM pollution, which in turn is important to inform control and improvement measures.”

The specialist instrumentation company says the TEOM 1405 uses a direct mass measurement that is not subject to the measurement uncertainties found in other surrogate technologies and provides a self-referencing, NIST traceable direct mass measurement.

For those who need to measure fine and coarse particulates simultaneously, a dichotomous format version of the 1405 is available (1405-DF) for continuous monitoring of both PM2.5 and PM10. This provides a substantial cost saving compared with two individual instruments.

A key feature of the new design for the 1405-F is that the control unit, the sensor and the FDMS are all built into the same box, which means that the unit is smaller and more cost-effective.