New performance specification and quality assur-ance procedures for continuous monitoring of particulate matter (PM) mass concentrations went into effect in January 2004 when the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the final versions of its Performance Specification 11 (PS-11) and Procedure 2. Several commercially available PM Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (PM CEMS), utilizing various measurement techniques have been tested during the past few years. The primary requirement of this new instrumentation is the ability to correlate with gravimetric measurements performed using standard reference methods such as EPA Method 17 or EPA Method 5.

In January 2005, a SICK Maihak FWE200 “scattered-light” based PM CEMS, was installed at Louisville Gas and Electric’s (LG&E) Mill Creek Power Station as part of an evaluation test. The initial PS-11 correlation test using EPA Reference Method 5B was conducted in April 2005. Subsequently, in June 2005, a Procedure 2 Response Cor-relation Audit (RCA) was performed using EPA Reference Method 5B to check the stability of the established correlation curve. A forced unit outage prevented completion of the RCA testing in June; however, the testing was successfully completed in September 2005 upon the unit’s return to operation. The FWE200 demonstrated high reliability and accuracy with its correlation values and overall compliance with PS-11 and Procedure 2 requirements.

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