Yarmouth Research leads the way in fugitive emission testing

摘要

Whilst visiting Boston, USA, I took the opportunity to visit Matt Wasailewski at his laboratory. What I found was most enlightening and encouraging in the quest for reducing fugitive emissions from valves. The laboratory is situated in the rural area of North Yarmouth, Maine in the USA. It approximately 2000m{sup}2 in size and is set back from the main road. It is surrounded by trees. Testing started in 1992 and took 10 years to become established. In 1993/94, some valve fugitive emission testing was undertaken with the introduction of the ISA and FCI standards. At that time, many of the leading valve manufacturers performed baseline testing on their standard and enhanced-sealing valves. Without the requirement from the end-users, testing activity slowed in the late 90's.The activity began to pick up 6 years ago especially with the testing for ChevronTexaco.