Center for the Study of Open Source Emissions
MRIGlobal offers a distinctive competence in open source emissions, with a wide spectrum of capabilities for environmental sampling and analysis, including instrumental test and manual test methods. With more than 30 years experience, MRIGlobal is a recognized expert in providing a systemic approach to monitoring and modeling emissions, assessment, analysis, and validation of emissions.
Open source emissions are the particles of soil, water, gas or biota produced from sources like roadways, construction sites, disturbed desert soils, mining operations and military operations. Open source emissions produce technical challenges as they do not pass through a confined flow, are dependent on external factors, and test protocols are often poorly specified and verified.
To address these challenges, he Institute’s staff led the development of a voluntary consensus organization, the Center for the Study of Open Source Emissions, with a goal of serving as a catalyst for collaboration in developing standards in the field of study.
The center operates with guidance of an independent advisory board of representatives from the private sector and government agencies. The center, which uses MRIGlobal’s specialized field and laboratory facilities, guides the process to develop standard field study test methods to produce reliable emission factors.
MRIGlobal has the ability to characterize emissions sampled in the field, to simulate them in our laboratories, as well as to model the behavior of emissions from open sources.
MRIGlobal’s specific capabilities include sampling and analysis of:
- Chemical agent surrogates at military test facilities
- Emissions in high winds, dust storms and wildfires
- Emissions in arid environments
MRIGlobal uses innovative technologies for measuring open source emissions, including:
- Exposure profiling technique: This is an MRIGlobal-proprietary technique for quantifying dust emissions, using a very reliable mass balance calculation.
- Portable wind tunnels: For studies of wind-generated emissions from open areas, MRIGlobal has developed portable wind tunnels for on-site characterization of surface erosion attributes, without disturbing protective elements or fragile surfaces.
- MRIGlobal-fabricated Dustiness Test Chamber: This facility can determine the relative dust generation potential of various solids, such as soils, dyes, and compounding additives. The chamber can replace field testing to characterize fine particle emissions.