Environmental Measurements

The Laboratory of Steam Boilers & Thermal Plants belongs to the School of Mechanical Engineering / Thermal Section of the National Technical University of Athens. The Laboratory's Environmental Measurement Unit is active in the fields of environmental measurements and instrument calibrations, as described below.

The Laboratory of Steam Boilers & Thermal Plants of the NTUA has been accredited by the National Accreditation System (E.S.Y.D.) in accordance with the European standard EN ISO/IEC 17025 and with all additional requirements as specialized in the European standard ELOT CEN/TS 15675 in the field of environmental testing with Certificate of Accreditation No. 648 and scope of accreditation: 

  1. Isokinetic sampling and determination of mass concentration of particulate matter.
  2. Sampling and determination of emissions of PM10 and PM2.5 particles.
  3. Measurement of velocity and volume flow rate of gas streams in ducts.
  4. Determination of water vapor in ducts.
  5. Sampling and Determination of the concentration for O2, CO2, CO, SO2, NOx & N2O.
  6. Sampling and Determination of the mass concentration Total Organic Carbon (TOC) with flame ionization detector(FID).
  7. Sampling for the determination of PCDDs/PCDFs and like dioxin PCBs.
  8. Sampling for the determination of As,Cd,Cr,Co,Cu,Mn,Ni,Pb,Sb,Ti and V.
  9. Sampling for the determination of total Hg.
  10. Validation and performance test of automatic measurement systems.

Modern equipment is used for measurements at the customer's installations according to European, American and International standards. For measurements where laboratory analysis of samples is required, the Laboratory shall cooperate with EN ISO 17025 accredited laboratories abroad. In addition, standard calibration gases can be used with traceability in international standards and standard reference methods can be applied. This achieves the good operation control as well as the calibration of customer equipment or instruments by issuing certificates and using standard calibration methods.

The Laboratory has remarkable measuring equipment to support the services provided. In particular, in the case of the services provided by the Laboratory of Steam Boilers and Thermal Plants in the context of its operation as a Laboratory Service Provider concerning the control of combustion systems relating to environmental measurements of gaseous emissions from stationary combustion sources, the following equipment shall be used:

  • Instruments and apparatus for measuring temperatures, pressures and humidity.
  • Gas analysers [O2, CO2, CO, SO2, N2O, NO, NO2 and NOx].
  • Soot grade measuring devices
  • Arrangement of gravimetric determination devices for the concentration of suspended solid particles in flue gases, using the isokinetic suction method.
  • Device for measuring volatile organic VOC compounds.
  • Arrangement of devices for dioxins & furans sampling.
  • Arrangement of devices for heavy metals sampling.
  • Arrangement of devices for X2 halogens and of hydrogen halides Hx sampling.
  • Apparatus for measuring the acid dew point of the exhaust gas.

The other equipment of the Laboratory consists of:

  • SENCO W201 evaporator.
  • Hewlett Packard Gas Chromatograph.
  • Hewlett Packard Mass Spectrometer.
  • Tar Analyser.
  • Chemito GC 1000 Gas Chromatograph.
  • Drying oven.
  • Ultrasonic bath.
  • Pyriandy.
  • Precision electronic scales.
  • Dehumidifiers.
  • Sample cache freezer.
  • Metal and glass equipment.
  • Distilled and deionized water production system (Type I &III).
  • Computers.
  • Printers.