Measuring nitrosamines: the carcinogens used in carbon capture

Jed Thomas

2 min read

At CEM 2023 in Barcelona, Dr Haydn Barros of the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) ran us through the challenges faced by those measuring nitrosamines and some potential solutions to keeping track of this emerging pollutant.

Filling gaps in our knowledge of nitrosamines

There are still considerable knowledge gaps surrounding the metrology of amine-based technologies utilised in carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) settings, whereby there are no documentable reference methods for sampling and monitoring readily available. As a research-and-development project, the NPL have focused on the basic physicochemical properties and behaviour of amines and nitrosamines as well as their impact on the development and validation of CCUS methods.

This research illustrates the anticipated difficulties which arise through sampling and measuring nitrosamines’ emissions due to their mentioned complex physicochemical properties and behaviours. The theoretical aspect of Barros' presentation will be comprised of the most relevant nitrosamines expected to be found in CCUS environments, while the experimental work is based on a select group of those. The use of periodic monitoring methods for monitoring CCUS emissions will be discussed. Through a literature-review, significant variations in the values of physical and chemical properties assigned to each chemical were found, some differing by orders of magnitude. This has a potential impact on the interpretation of the nitrosamines’ behaviour and on the development of sampling methodologies.

The possible origin of these discrepancies are discussed and strategies are suggested to avoid these ambiguous values among the original large data-set. These strategies are based on well-known physics and chemistry as well as simple statistics. Most probable issues and foreseeable scenarios will be summarised, contributing to the development of the sampling and monitoring methods required for CCUS technologies.