3 May 2024Air quality assessment of amine-based carbon capture

The Environment Agency commissioned CERC to carry out a project instigated by their modelling team AQMAU, entitled Improving Post-Combustion Carbon Capture Air Quality Risk Assessment Techniques. The project aimed to increase confidence in risk assessments for regulatory purposes, to integrate practical tools and evidence, and to inform decision-making.

The decarbonisation of industry is pushing the evolution of air dispersion modelling to assess the risk of emissions from emerging techniques such as amine-based post-combustion carbon capture.

As developers of the state-of-the-art ADMS amines chemistry module, CERC were ideally placed to carry out this project and have published their report.

The project addresses the uncertainties of ADMS input data and assumptions and improves the transparency and significance of the assessment process. It will further increase confidence and understanding of the ADMS approach and assessment strategies.

As part of the project, CERC developed an additional user-friendly tool and user guide to help model users calculate and document the amine-related input parameters.

2 May 2024Booking is now open for the ADMS User Group Meetings, 4-5 December 2024, Cambridge

You can now book your tickets for the 2024 ADMS User Group Meetings, which will be held at Møller Institute on 4th and 5th December.

• ADMS 6 User Group Meeting, 4th December
• ADMS-Urban and ADMS-Roads, 5th December

The annual ADMS User Group Meetings are a great opportunity to hear the latest ADMS model news and advice from CERC consultants and model developers, to hear talks by model users about their own applications of the software, and to network with other model users.

Tickets are available to order through Eventbrite until 23:30 on Tuesday 12th November. Organisations with a valid software support contract are entitled to one or more tickets free of charge depending on the type of licence held. The draft programme will be published soon.

29 Apr 2024Air quality impact of paint spraying facilities

CERC has carried out assessments of the air quality impact of exhaust plumes from vehicle and aircraft paint spraying facilities to support planning applications, using ADMS 6.

CERC's consultancy team worked from a list of paint products, together with Safety Data Sheets and Technical Data Sheets for paint components. These were combined with paint usage data and Emission Limit Values (ELVs) to calculate emission rates of particulates, VOCs and isocyanates from spray booth exhaust stacks.

Process-specific ELVs are provided in Defra Process Guidance Notes such as 6/47(11): Statutory guidance for original coating of road vehicles and trailers.

The Guidance Note 6/47(11) refers to the calculation of a suitable stack height using HMIP Technical Guidance Note (Dispersion) D1, now obsolete. The Note states that alternative dispersion models may be used.

We have found that the application of ADMS can lead to the calculation of a lower stack height than screening methods such as D1, especially where working hours are represented.

18 Mar 20242024 ADMS User Group Meetings: 4-5 December 2024, Cambridge

The 2024 ADMS User Group Meetings will be held at the Møller Institute, Churchill College, Cambridge, on the following dates:

• ADMS 6, Wednesday 4 December
• ADMS-Urban and ADMS-Roads, Thursday 5 December

The annual ADMS User Group Meetings are a great opportunity to hear the latest ADMS model news and advice from CERC consultants and model developers, to hear talks by model users about their own applications of the software, and to network with other model users. Tickets will be available to book soon.

1 Mar 2024EFT 12 update for ADMS-Roads, ADMS-Urban and ADMS-Airport

The UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and the Devolved Administrations have released version 12 of the Emissions Factors Toolkit (EFT). Details of the changes for this version are given in the EFT user guide.

We have processed the new EFT and published an update for ADMS-Roads, ADMS-Urban and ADMS-Airport version 5 on the Other downloads page of our User Area. If you are registered, you can go straight to the download folder. If you are not registered, follow the instructions on the User Area main page.