Element Materials Technology, one of the world’s leading providers in testing, inspection and certification services, has launched a new, mobile solution to enable businesses to instantly monitor their on-site emissions.
The £500,000 investment by Element in state-of-the-art ‘Selective Ion Flow Tube Mass Spectrometry (SIFT-MS)’ instrumentation comes at a time of heightened emissions regulations which are impacting a wide range of businesses including landfill operators, chemicals manufacturers, and the heavy manufacturing industry. The SIFT-MS van can be brought on site anywhere in the UK, Europe and Ireland by one of Element’s 50+ Safety and Environmental Compliance teams.
The Environment Agency is advocating for more stringent guidelines on Emission Limit Values, on account of new pollutants being generated by new industrial processes, and the need for monitoring ever-lower emissions limits, which existing monitoring equipment is not optimised to test for.
Element’s new mobile SIFT-MS solution means it can now offer real-time, low-level emissions measurements for organic gases such as nitrosamines and PFAS chemicals across a wide range of industrial applications.
Entering service in August 2025, the mobile SIFT-MS instrument is the first of its kind to target process emissions in the UK and Ireland, allowing businesses to pinpoint hazardous gas concentrations at places such as landfills, wastewater treatment plants and within stacks, optimising their site’s processes.
Mark Elliot, Technical Manager at Element Materials Technology, said: “We know that as part of the journey to net zero, and UK’s wider 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, identifying emerging and existing pollutants at lower and lower levels is going to play a big role. For businesses, the emergence of new pollutants such as nitrosamines and PFAS chemicals can create problems with meeting the relevant guidelines and regulations unless the appropriate monitoring is in place. This risk applies to any manufacturers producing emissions, so it’s imperative that rigorous monitoring is used.
“Having a mobile emissions monitoring unit that can provide real-time results while still maintaining the laboratory-quality accuracy means businesses can react far quicker if they are falling outside of the limit. With restrictions like the Emission Limit Values tightening, this innovative breakthrough could not come at a better time.”
While the accuracy of direct analysis methods is often a cause for concern for industrial operators, Element’s SIFT-MS innovation represents an important step towards instilling confidence in such techniques. Its ability to instantly detect environmental pollutants with high sensitivity across a wide concentration range (ppt, ppb and ppm) stems from the rapid switching of three reagent ions (H3O+, NO+, and O2+).
These reagents then react with analytes through a soft chemical ionisation process and form identifiable product ions. Additionally, the SIFT-MS has the potential for an upgrade facilitating the use of negative reagents, such as O-, O2-, OH-, NO2-, and NO3-. This will only further enhance the instrument’s sensitivity to pollutants.
To book or to find out more information about Element’s ground-breaking technology, click here.
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