Tar Protocol. Development of a standard method for the measurement of organic contaminants ("tar") in biomass producer gases

This paper presents the history and objectives of the development of a standard method for the measurement of organic contaminants in biomass producer gases. Recently, a project with that title has started in the European 5th Framework Programme. The stucture of this project with acronym 'Tar Protocol' is also described in this paper. The project is performed by 17 partners and continues earlier work initiated by IEA, DoE and EU in 1998. The project aims to combine two draft protocols that resulted from this earlier work. The tar protocol will be developed for accurate measurement of organic contaminants ("tars") over a large range of concentrations (1mg/Nm3 to 100 g/Nm3) and conditions (0 - 900 ºC; 0.9 - 60 bars). Besides, a particulate concentration will be determined too. Together with the Protocol come a number of accepted 'shortcut methods' which are based on (or are similar to) existing measurement methods. It is foreseen that these shortcut methods, only covering part of these ranges of concentrations and conditions, will be used most in practise. The question whether a Tar Protocol is needed, is answered in this paper.