South Coast Science’s Praxis/Urban has been awarded MCERTS for indicative measurement of dust in ambient air (PM2.5 and PM10). You can see the list of certified devices on the CSA website and you can also view our certificate which includes notes on the product and its usage.

The certification process is also underway for the Praxis/Cube and it’s anticipated that full MCERTS certification will follow shortly.

The Praxis/Urban is the first MCERTS approved monitor to receive certification without the use of a heater tube to condition the air prior to sampling. This offers the following customer benefits (compared to a device using a heater):

• lower power consumption
• smaller, compact device
• less complex and therefore more robust device
• lower cost

What does MCERTS mean for the customer?

For customers, the certification gives assurance they can rely on data from their monitoring devices. MCERTS is a formal product certification scheme that operates according to the Environmental Agency’s performance standards. This means the certified equipment has demonstrated to provide reliable monitoring data and meets standards that are accepted by UK regulators and internationally.

In order to develop the necessary data correction techniques prior to submission of the devices, South Coast Science worked in collaboration with Ricardo Plc. This 3-year project was necessary to fully understand the performance of the particle sensors in a variety of environments and conditions, so that the interpretation models could be properly validated.

Designed for Air Quality Monitoring in the real world

As mentioned above, the MCERTS certification has been achieved without using a heater on the air inlet to condition the air prior to sampling, which is considered unusual for a device of this type. As a result, the Praxis/Urban’s award winning design* creates a small lightweight device (only 4kg), making it easier to handle and deploy than others.

Additionally, the work that has gone into using machine learning to correct the particle sensor data is also used with the gas sensors, resulting in an improvement in accuracy across all measured parameters.

Another benefit of the Praxis/Urban is its high sampling range in comparison to other devices in the same price range. The Urban is certified to operate at a range of 0-1000μg/m3 While those with a higher certified range have, correspondingly, a higher purchase price.

You can find out more about the MCERTS performance standards here.

As reported by South Coast Science Sales Director – David Johnson

“This certification has been part of our product roadmap for some time. We started this process back in 2018 with the United Nations Environment Program, where we demonstrated it was possible for our devices to operate in a harsh African climate.

Since then, with the slew of new products entering the market, we have been continuously improving our data interpretation techniques. Achieving MCERTS demonstrates our commitment to supplying data that our customers can rely on.”

If you’d like to find out more about South Coast Science products please contact David Johnson, Sales Director or follow us on LinkedIn.

• Best Gas & Particulate Matter Measurement Solution 2021, British Made Awards for Praxis/OPCube; Currently shortlisted for Product Innovation of the Year by both the BESA National Awards 2022 and the London Construction Awards 2022.