Project MetrIAQ - Emissions of dangerous substances from building materials into indoor air

15/03/2023

• Challenge
• Objectives
• Methods
• Partners

Given that European citizens spend more than 80 % of their time indoors, it is vital to have a healthy indoor environment. To achieve this, the release of harmful substances from materials used indoors must be minimised. Traceable measurement of emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from such materials is essential. The project results will support the efforts to minimise the use of building products, that emit dangerous substances, thereby ensuring improved indoor air quality.

Development of both emission reference materials (ERM) and gaseous certified reference materials (gCRM) for pollutants typically emitted from building materials and their thorough validation; development of a suitable numerical model for simulating the compound release into test chamber air enabling the prediction of the emissions for each of the selected target VOC; contribute to the standards development work of the relevant technical committees.

For the well-defined and stable release of VOCs from the ERM, reservoir materials will be developed and integrated in a suitable matrix. These can either be encapsulated pure VOCs or porous materials impregnated with the target compounds. Supplemented by a numerical model the emission rates will be made predictable. For demonstrating SI traceability of the gCRMs, gaseous primary reference materials (gPRM) will be produced having the closest metrological traceability.

Consortium

2 Metrological Institutes (TUBITAK UME, VSL)
1 Designated Institute (BAM)
6 external funded partners (Eurofins, Fraunhofer IMM, Politecnico di Torino, VITO, ZAG) from 7 European countries

Coordination

Dr. Matthias Richter, Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM)

Funding

The project receives funding from the European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (EMPIR).

MetrIAQ - Metrology for the determination of emissions of dangerous substances from building materials into indoor air

Overview

The release of harmful substances from building materials, such as paints, flooring, and from other products used indoors, such as furniture, into the air must be minimised. The overall aim of the project is to develop traceable measurement of emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from such materials, by providing well-defined emission reference materials (ERM) and certified reference gas standards (gCRM), in accordance with the emission test chamber procedure described in EN 16516.

Objectives

The specific objectives of the project are:

1. To develop an emission reference material (ERM) that contains and releases relevant compounds typically emitted by construction products within the range of the EU-LCI list with a constant emission profile that decreases by less than 10 % over at least 14 days, in order to improve the quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) of the emission test chamber method as described in EN 16516.
2. To develop gaseous certified reference materials (gCRM) of indoor air pollutants for compounds selected from key groups that are relevant for the health-related evaluation of building products as stated in the EU-LCI-list, such as aldehydes, unsaturated aldehydes, cyclic dimethylsiloxanes and glycol compounds.
3. To validate the newly developed ERM and gCRM by investigating the short- and long-term stability, reproducibility and uncertainty in an inter-laboratory comparison, thereby demonstrating the benefits of the reference materials for the test procedure described in EN 16516.
4. To develop a suitable numerical model for simulating the transport processes inside the ERM and the compound release into test chamber air enabling the prediction of the emissions for each of the selected target VOC.
5. To contribute to the standards development work of the technical committees CEN/TC351 WG2 and ISO/TC146 SC6 to ensure that the outputs of the project are aligned with their needs, communicated promptly to those developing the standards and to those who will use them (e.g. test chamber operators and gas standards manufacturers), and in a form that can be incorporated into the standards at the earliest opportunity.

Project structure

Work packages

WP 1 Development of ERM, gPRM and gCRM to improve the QA/QC of the emission test chamber method according to EN 16516

WP 2 Modelling of VOC emissions from the ERM

WP 3 Validation of the ERM, gPRM and gCRM including organisation of an inter-laboratory comparison

WP 4 Creating Impact

Project coordination

Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), Process Analytical Technology Division and Analysis of Artefacts and Cultural Assets Division Germany
Dr. Matthias Richter - MetrIAQ project leader, scientist, BAM Process Analytical Technology Division
Dr. Wolfgang Horn - scientist, BAM Analysis of Artefacts and Cultural Assets Division
Dr. Christoph Grimmer - scientist, BAM Analysis of Artefacts and Cultural Assets Division

Partners

TUBITAK UME Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu, Turkey

VSL B.V., Netherlands

Eurofins Product Testing Denmark A/S, Denmark

FhG IMM Fraunhofer Institute for Microengineering and Microsystems, Germany

POLITO Politecnico di Torino, Italy

VITO Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek N.V., Belgium

ZAG Zavod za gradbeništvo Slovenije, Slovenia

Publications

Publishable Summary for 20NRM04 MetrIAQ Metrology for the determination of emissions of dangerous substances from building materials into indoor air, March 2023

"Metrological generation of SI-traceable gas-phase standards and reference materials for (semi-) volatile organic compounds", in: Measurement Science and Technology, 2023

20NRM04 MetrIAQ M9 Publishable Summary (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6390262, March 2022, PDF)

D3-Report: de Krom, I., Henderson, E., van der Veen, A., Baldan, A., and Maes, F., Guideline for the preparation and analysis of gPRMs and gCRMs of indoor air pollutants stated in the EU-LCI list with relative uncertainties below 5 % (k = 2) and a shelf life of at least 1 year.

Events

Presentation at CIM Conference 2023, Lyon, France

MetrIAQ’s M18 Consortium Meeting on 16th and 17th November 2022

Oral-Presantation at AIRMON Conference 2022, Bristol, UK

MetrIAQ’s M9 Consortium Meeting on 15th February 2022

1st Meeting of MetrIAQ’s Stakeholder Advisory Board (SAB) on 16th February 2022

2nd Meeting of MetrIAQ’s Stakeholder Advisory Board (SAB) on 8th December 2022

Poster-Presentation at ECIS Conference 4 -9 September 2022 Chania, Crete, Greece

MetrIAQ’s M27 Consortium Meeting on 4th and 5th Juli 2023

Poster presentation at Healthy Buildings Conference 2023, Aachen, Germany

Workshop at Vito 18th October 2023

Participation at GAS ANALYSIS 2024

MetrIAQ-Webinar at 11th April 2024

Participation at Dechema Zeolith Conference 2024

Funding

The project 20NRM04 MetrIAQ has received funding from the EMPIR programme co-financed by the Participating States and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.