15 Years Continuous Emission Monitoring of Dioxins Experiences and Trends   

The continuous monitoring of the emissions of dioxins and furans of incinerators is a topic which has been in discussion for several years. Until today no reliable online monitoring system has been available which can provide accurate information on the PCDD/PCDF emissions as a TEQ value, as demanded by EN-1948, US EPA method 23 or the EU directive for incineration of waste 2000/76/EC. Such systems won’t be available for the next few years, so continuous sampling by a long-term sampling system is one alternative and a step nearer to continuous information of the dioxin/furan emissions from incinerators. Continuous sampling gives more information about the real dioxin emissions of a plant, with comparatively short sampling times of only 8 hours on 1 to 3 days per year, which represents only 0.1 to 0.3 % of the yearly operating hours of a plant.