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1st of October 2020 the “19NRM03 SI-Hg” (Metrology for traceable protocols for elemental and oxidised mercury concentrations) project started. SI-Hg is a three year project (2020-2023) funded under the European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (EMPIR) as a part of Euramet. The project consortium is made up of 8 partners with complementary expertise and experience related to mercury measurements in the laboratory and in the field. The goal of the project is the production of a metrological traceable protocol or the certification of elemental and oxidized mercury gas generators.

In former EMRP projects PartEmission and MeTra and EMPIR project MercOx primary standards and SI-traceable calibration methods for mercury have been developed at NMIs. Notwithstanding these efforts there are no standardised procedures that ensure the dissemination of the metrological traceability from primary to working standards among calibration and testing laboratories and in the field. Scientifically sound certification protocols, to assess the performance of elemental mercury (Hg0) and oxidised mercury (HgII) gas generators in the form of formally accepted documentary standards, are of fundamental importance to guarantee the accuracy and comparability of the mercury measurement results in gas emission sources and in the atmosphere in Europe and globally.

The certification protocols contribute to establishing a traceability chain from a primary mercury gas standard to measurement data obtained in gas emission sources and in the atmosphere. Standardisation committee CENTC264/WG8 has already formulated a new work item on the certification protocol to transform the protocols developed in the project into European standards.