Performance evaluation of two commercial chemiluminescence NOx analysers according to European Standard EN 14211

Abstract

According to Directive 2008/50/EC, all equipment used for NO_x fixed measurements must comply with the reference method or equivalent by 11 June 2013. Up to that date, non-type-approved equipment can continue to be used in air monitoring networks and will probably also be used in air pollution studies even after that date. In this context, it is advisable to know how these “old” measuring instruments respond to the requirements of European Standard EN 14211: 2005: Ambient Air Quality—Standard method for the measurement of the concentration of nitrogen dioxide and nitrogen monoxide by chemiluminescence. In this work, we carry out a thorough performance evaluation of two commercial NO_x analysers, both purchased before 2010, according to the mentioned Standard. Results show that water vapour interference is one of the most important disconformities with this Standard. The expanded uncertainty estimation of both analysers was below the quality objective of the above-mentioned Directive (15%); however, this calculation was performed by applying some modifications to the proposed model of Standard EN 14211. These modifications are also discussed in the paper.