AQE 2015 Conference Details Announced

The organisers of AQE 2015, the international Air Quality and Emissions show, have announced a comprehensive conference programme for the event which will take place in Telford, UK, on 22^nd and 23^rd April. Organiser Marcus Pattison says: “The event could not have been better timed. Just before Christmas, the UK Government issued a consultation that, if adopted, could result in a dramatic reduction in ambient air quality monitoring, and this is causing uproar in the sector. The messages surrounding the enormous numbers of premature deaths resulting from air pollution are starting to gain traction in the mainstream media, so it is astonishing that Defra should propose less monitoring, and this is bound to be a hot topic at the Conference!”

AQE 2015 is the 8^th in a series of Air Quality & Emissions events, attracting visitors from all over the world, each with a professional interest in air quality. In common with AQE2013, this year’s event will focus on issues relating to the measurement of stack emissions to air on the first day, and on ambient air quality on the second day.

Day 1: ‘Emissions monitoring challenges facing operators and manufacturers’ Wednesday 22^nd April

The first day’s conference will commence with David Graham from E.ON Technologies explaining how stacks are defined under legislation that aggregates units together. He will also provide a regulatory update on the Industrial Emissions Directive and the Medium Combustion Plant Directive. Jonathan Clark from Syngenta will then outline the challenges facing operators with small stacks in relation to periodic monitoring and compliance with standards. Continuing this theme, Dan Jones from E.ON Technologies will address issues facing the operators of large stacks, particularly in relation to Health & Safety, sample representativeness etc.

In the afternoon, Derek Myers from REC will provide an overview of the challenges facing test laboratories and others, when sampling dust from wet stacks, and finally, Rod Robinson from NPL will explain the measurement and calculation of stack flow rate for mass emissions reporting purposes.

Day 2: Air Quality - Latest developments and tools - Thursday 23rd April

Ambient air quality issues are of course extremely localised, and Stephen Stratton from Ricardo AEA will provide a summary of a study on exposure to pollution at buggy height, adult height and air quality station height. Jacqueline Barr from IBI/Transport Scotland will then deliver a presentation on a Sensor Rotation Project in which a network of new monitoring technologies has been applied to traffic management and control systems. In the final presentation of the morning, David Green from Kings College London will report on a series of PM Speciation Studies looking at the makeup of particulate matter measured across the UK and how it varies.

In the afternoon, Martine Van Poppel from VITO Belgium, will explain the results of the CARBOTRAF EU Project which examined ways in which Black Carbon and carbon dioxide levels can be reduced by the latest monitoring technologies and effective traffic management. In the final presentation, David Carslaw from King’s College London will describe 'OpenAir' (open-source software) which is a free software tool for the analysis and visualisation of air quality data.

Inevitably, many of the presentations will be coloured by Defra’s recent consultation, which bodes well for a lively debate.

AQE 2015 ( www.AQEshow.com ) will take place at the International Centre in Telford and in addition to the Conference, visitors will also be able to attend Workshops providing practical advice and case studies, and an Exhibition featuring almost all of the world’s leading providers of monitoring equipment and services.

The charge for attending the Conference is £55 +VAT per day or £100 for both days. However, entrance to the exhibition and workshops is free and pre-registration guarantees free lunch, free refreshments and free parking. Online registration for AQE 2015 is now open, see http://ilmt.co/PL/618X.