Quantifying cooking emissions

Whitebeam has developed a test kitchen with apparatus specifically designed to quantify organic cooking fumes. We measure the concentration of fumes extracted from the kitchen using an instrument called a flame ionization detector, which responds to combustible organic matter. After processing the data obtained by this instrument, we can calculate cooking fumes in a variety of formats e.g:

• Mass concentration (mg/m3),
• Mass per unit of food
• Mass per unit of time

We can also use this test rig to investigate the durability of catalytic converters and to find out how this is affected by exposure to various oven-cleaning chemicals. Futhermore we can identify ‘secondary emissions’ i.e. those that result from contact between the catalytic converter and cleaning chemicals.

We use this test rig for our own R&D purposes, but we are also happy to use it and the expertise we have developed to undertake commercial projects for clients and interested parties.