History and Objectives
In August 1998 AKPF was founded by the industrial partners of the VERT-project, which had been carried out by the occupational health authorities of Austria, Switzerland and Germany, abbreviated AUVA, SUVA and TBG.
“VERT” is an acronym for “Verminderung der Emissionen Realer Dieselmotoren im Tunnelbau”, in plain English “Reduction of Diesel-emissions in tunnelling”. Particulate matter, primarily elementary carbon of ultrafine size turned out to be of major concern to the extent that on tunnelling and other major construction sites particle-traps became mandatory.
Originally, AKPF was intended to provide technical support for Austrian, Swiss, and German legislators and administrators when setting rules and phasing in their enforcement.
Meanwhile the scope of AKPF activities has broadened considerably:
Geographically:
- Members of AKPF are active all over the world; it is by no means an exaggeration to contend that the VERT-results have been accepted by CARB (Californian Air Resources Board) as a guideline for small scale pilot tests for the ambitious Diesel-engine retrofit programme in the huge State of California. A reported increase of productivity caught the attention of mining companies.
In substance:
- Once a year, in August, AKPF co-sponsors a high level scientific conference on nanoparticles at the Federal Polytechnic Institute Zurich. The conference is unique as researchers from all over the world come by invitation only, each contributing a paper. No time is wasted, no local politicians or journalists are admitted. The conference lasts 2 days, 10 to 12 hours each of straight work.
- AKPF members monitor publications in the field of particulate matter; any new scientific finding is somehow fitted into the puzzle of ultra-fine particles.
- If a paper is contradictory to established knowledge, members of AKPF seek verification at leading Government Laboratories while the author of the controversial paper is invited to co-operate.
- Support for policy-makers, administrators is no longer restricted to the local area; it has now been extended to the public, to non-governmental organisations, etc.
- The scope of AKPF activities is no longer limited to occupational health; environmental problems and public health as such have become the issue now. Accumulation of PM due to through-traffic in Alpine valleys and in city canyons along with their effects on public health are at least of equal concern as is occupational health.
Measuring, testing and certification procedures have become a major issue of AKPF.
- VERT-procedure of certification is recognised and accepted by various authorities, for instance CARB; thus reliability of filter-systems in retrofit programs has been significantly increased.
- Testing has been and still is an expensive proposition for any player in the market, manufacturers of filter-systems, of additives and of other suppliers; work is in progress to reduce these costs while increasing information.
- Measuring techniques, such as new sensors, have been developed; they need to be assessed and compared in view of various boundary conditions (see for instance definitions of "particle diameter" in the Particle Glossary of this file). Regarding nano-particles, which are the most dangerous ones, there is a body of undisputed knowledge on one hand and plenty of grey area still left for further research on the other hand.
AKPF assistance is available to governments, public officials, policy makers, administrators etc. for technical feasibility and economic viability studies.
AKPF assistance is available for primary engineering design studies of testing facilities.
Further, AKPF assistance is available to individual companies planning a retrofit programme for selecting suitable filter-systems, depending on their needs.
AKPF is open to companies establishing themselves as manufacturers of trap systems or of supplies and provides assistance in passing certification procedures.
Technical Work
The following projects have already been completed:
- A trap certification procedure
- A trap field control procedure
- Trap technology definitions
- Trap and trapping calculation methods (a never ending topic)
- A draft-trap specification
- A draft-trap certification
- Draft-field control methods with respect to particles and toxic gases
- A proposal for OBD-controls of traps
- Field controls on Swiss construction sites and city bus applications
- A glossary of exhaust particles and related topics
- A survey of available after-treatment systems
- An official list of trap-systems certified and approved in Switzerland (as well as in California)
- An abstracting service, a list of measuring equipment and news about particles will follow.