Spray Booth Emissions Monitoring in Leeds
Envirocare was commissioned to conduct a spray booth emissions monitoring campaign on a pair of Dalby Paint Booths at a car garage in Leeds to assess the Environmental Impact from a car parts coating process.
The Problem
Emissions monitoring was required on a pair of paint booths at a car garage in Leeds in order to assess the environmental impact. The operator wanted to assess their compliance with environmental legislation and demonstrate that their booths were operating as designed.
The Solution
The monitoring methods and site times were arranged and agreed with the client in advance of the visit. BS EN 12619 was chosen for the instrumental measurement of total VOCs and BS EN 13284-1 for the manual measurement of particulate matter. Upon arriving at site, and after conducting all necessary health and safety procedures, the Envirocare MCERTs registered technicians were able to identify two emissions to atmosphere points and proceeded to fit a series of EA TGN M1 compliant sampling ports to allow the spray booth emissions monitoring to take place.
All monitoring equipment was then carefully maneuvered to an area agreed with the operator and was calibrated on-site using apparatus and materials traceable to national standards.
Once Envirocare, in discussion with the operator, was happy that the process was operating at the desired conditions a detailed analysis of the stack flow was conducted at the emission to atmosphere point.
The information gained from this analysis was then used to select appropriate conditions and tooling for the measurement of particulate matter.
Particulate matter and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were measured simultaneously for a period of 40 minutes. The VOC concentrations were measured instrumentally and logged onto a computer at a frequency of 2 readings per minute. This was achieved by constantly extracting a small amount of stack gas from the sampling location and passing it through an analyser utilising the flame ionisation detection (FID) principle.
The particulates were sampled manually by constantly extracting a small quantity of stack gas and passing it through a filter which had been accurately pre-weighed at the Enviorcare laboratory in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
Any particles of dust present in the stack gas are caught by the filter and the quantity determined by re-weighing the filter back at the laboratory. During the sampling, the moisture within the extracted stack gas was condensed and the quantity determined so that moisture content could also be reported.
The flow measurement and sampling procedure was then repeated for the remaining spray booth. The monitoring equipment was then validated against the earlier calibration and carefully packed away along with all samples, tools and materials.
Before leaving site, the Envirocare technicians advised the operator of the lead time on results and reporting, answered any further questions and finally, ensured that the working area and sampling location had been left clean and tidy.
The Results
The results from the Envirocare spray booth emissions monitoring campaign showed that the paint booth stacks were both extracting at a rate in excess of 19,000 Nm·hr-1 with moisture contents below 0.8% v/v.
The concentration of particulate matter within the stack gases during the monitoring of spray booths 1 & 2 was found to be 1.8 and 2.4mg·Nm-3 respectively and the concentration of VOCs (as carbon) was found to be 9.1 and 9.4mg·Nm-3 respectively.
The operator was able to use this information to assess their compliance with environmental legislation and also to demonstrate that their booths were operating as designed.
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