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Standards play a crucial role in the transition to more sustainable production and consumption models by promoting the development of new markets for innovative products. In the case of the bioeconomy, standards are particularly relevant to ensure the sustainability of products and processes. Hence, standards represent an essential strategic tool to foster sustainable development. Furthermore, the standard-setting process brings together different stakeholders, which encourages research and the transfer of knowledge to industrial practice. In particular, scientific publications assist the standardisation process by providing scientific evidence. This study investigates the role of science and regulation in the bioeconomy standardisation process. It first provides a general analysis of bioeconomy-related standards, followed by an analysis of the regulations and publications referenced in the standards. Our analysis discloses a strong use of scientific knowledge in the bioeconomy standardisation process and demonstrates the readiness to integrate novel academic findings into revised versions of the standards. In addition, it reveals that the interaction between science and regulation is an important driver for standardisation activities around the bioeconomy, needed to support sustainable transitions.
The energy demand of private households contributes globally to 36.5% of the total CO2 emissions. To analyze the emissions reduction potential, we conducted a comparative life cycle assessment of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell in a residential application and a conventional system with a stand-alone gas condensing boiler and electricity from a grid mix. The period under review was referred to as the service life of the PEMFC and is assumed to be 10 years (83,038 h of PEMFC). The applicability of this in a single-family house built between 1991 and 2000 under German climatic conditions was investigated. The functional unit is set to the thermal energy demand of 16,244 kWh/a and electricity demand of 4919 kWh/a of a single-family house. The impact assessment method “CML 2001–August 2016” was used in this investigation. The manufacturing phase of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell showed disadvantages, whereby the use phase had significant advantages in most of the environmental impact categories as compared to the conventional energy supply system. Considering the whole life cycle, the advantages from the use phase could outperform the disadvantages from the manufacturing phase in most of the impact categories, except for ADP elements and TETP.
The European Commission has recently announced two guiding principles for EU product policy: First, product policy shall ensure that the performance of front-runner products in terms of sustainability becomes the norm, and second, the effectiveness of the current Ecodesign legislative framework is going to be significantly improved. Within this paper, already existing front-runner approaches and recent and ongoing product policy-making processes were reviewed. Based on the results, an EU front-runner approach is outlined. The presented approach (i) refers to performance levels of the best products already available on the market, (ii) aggregates information in existing databases, and (iii) works semi-automated. Together, all three attributes have a high potential to facilitate and accelerate the specification of appropriate minimum requirements for products at the EU level. This way, EU policymakers can deliver on the core objectives of the Ecodesign legislative framework much better. The basic mechanism and its legal entrenchment of the approach are illustrated for the energy efficiency of energy-related products. In addition, the Front-Runner Approach can be applied to any product group in the scope of the upcoming Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and to a wide range of product-related minimum requirements, such as durability, reparability, or recycled content. The study’s objective is to suggest a tailor-made and dynamic approach to keep the EU product legislation up to date using innovative technology based on the investigation of current regulations and identify the gap. Experiences from three international case studies suggest that a front-runner approach to setting energy-performance standards can drive innovation and reduce energy consumption via promoting energy-efficient products; transparency about available products is one of the key factors and can be established by a database. The EU front-runner approach comprises extending the existing energy label database (or making use of the digital product passport) and introducing a legislative procedure that triggers changes in the energy efficiency requirements in the specific EU regulations if the database shows that a certain threshold value is reached. Challenges such as limited EU staff capacities and opportunities such as increased dynamic are discussed.
Climate change and the pressure to decarbonize, as well as energy security concerns, have drawn the attention of policymakers and the industry to hydrogen energy. To ad-vance the hydrogen economy at a global scale, research and innovation progress is of significant importance, among others. However, previous studies have provided only lim-ited quantitative evidence of the effects of research and innovation on the formation of a global hydrogen market. Instead, they postulate rather than empirically support this rela-tionship. Therefore, this study analyzes the effects of research and innovation measured by scientific publications, patents, and standards on bilateral hydrogen trade flows for 32 countries between 1995 and 2019 in a gravity model of trade, using regression analyses and Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimation. The main results of the PPML estimation show that research and innovation progress is indeed associated with increased trade, especially with patenting and (international) standardization enhancing hydrogen export volumes. As policy implications, we derive that increased public R&D funding can help increase the competitiveness of hydrogen energy and boost market growth, along with infrastructure support and harmonized standards and regulations.
Against the backdrop of numerous security breaches and cyber-attacks, organizations need to take measures to secure their data and information. However, the well-known management system standard ISO/IEC 27001 for information security has shown a lower adoption rate – in terms of annual ISO survey data – than was previously expected by scholars and practitioners. Through the lens of Rogers' diffusion of innovation theory, we consider the adoption of ISO/IEC 27001 as a 'preventive innovation' and aim to identify factors that help gain a better understanding of its adoption. Therefore, we conducted a survey among German organizations on the use and impact of management system standards, explicitly distinguishing between organizations that implement ISO/IEC 27001 and those that are additionally certified against this standard. This study provides insights and contributes to an advanced understanding of motives, impacts, barriers, and useful measures to increase adoption of ISO/IEC 27001. Our findings may be useful to organizations considering the adoption of this management system standard, to certification bodies providing certification services, and to policymakers seeking means to improve information security in organizations.
The global trend towards decarbonization and the demand for energy security have put hydrogen energy into the spotlight of industry, politics, and societies. Numerous governments worldwide are adopting policies and strategies to facilitate the transition towards hydrogen-based economies. To assess the determinants of such transition, this study presents a comparative analysis of the technological innovation systems (TISs) for hydrogen technologies in Germany and South Korea, both recognized as global frontrunners in advancing and implementing hydrogen-based solutions. By providing a multidimensional assessment of pathways to the hydrogen economy, our analysis introduces two novel and crucial elements to the TIS analysis: (i) We integrate the concept of ‘quality infrastructure’ given the relevance of safety and quality assurance for technology adoption and social acceptance, and (ii) we emphasize the social perspective within the hydrogen TIS. To this end, we conducted 24 semi-structured expert interviews, applying qualitative open coding to analyze the data. Our results indicate that the hydrogen TISs in both countries have undergone significant developments across various dimensions. However, several barriers still hinder the further realization of a hydrogen economy. Based on our findings, we propose policy implications that can facilitate informed policy decisions for a successful hydrogen transition.
Outer membrane lipopolysaccharides (LPS) play a crucial role in determining attachment behavior and pathogenicity of bacteria. The aim of this study was to develop a simple procedure for anchoring bacterial lipopolysaccharides to polystyrene (PS) microparticles as a model system for in situ attachment studies. By using a swellcapture methodology, commercially available LPS of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (strain ATCC 27316 serotype 10.22) was anchored onto PS microparticles in a proof-of-concept study. A detailed chemical and morphological characterization has proven the success of LPS incorporation. It was shown that the coverage and structure of the LPS film was concentration dependent. The procedure can easily be adapted to LPS of other bacterial strains to generate a synthetic model toolkit for attachment studies.
During its 25 years of existence, the Inorganic Analysis Working Group of the Consultative Committee for Amount of Substance: Metrology in Chemistry and Biology (CCQM IAWG) has achieved much in establishing comparability of measurement results. Impressive work has been done on comparison exercises related to real-world problems in fields such as ecology, food, or health. In more recent attempts, measurements and comparisons were focused on calibration solutions which are the basis of most inorganic chemical measurements. This contribution deals with the question of how to achieve full and transparent SI traceability for the values carried by such solutions. Within this framework, the use of classical primary methods (CPMs) is compared to the use of a primary difference method (PDM). PDM is a method with a dual character, namely a metrological method with a primary character, based on the bundling of many measurement methods for individual impurities, which lead to materials with certified content of the main component. As in classical methods, where small corrections for interferences are accepted, in PDM, many small corrections are bundled. In contrast to classical methods, the PDM is universally applicable to all elements in principle. Both approaches can be used to certify the purity (expressed as mass fraction of the main element) of a high-purity material. This is where the metrological need of National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) for analytical methods meet the challenges of analytical methods. In terms of methods, glow discharge mass spectrometry (GMDS) with sufficient uncertainties for sufficiently small impurity contents is particularly noteworthy for the certification of primary transfer standards (PTS), and isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS), which particularly benefits from PTS (back-spikes) with small uncertainties, is particularly noteworthy for the application. The corresponding relative uncertainty which can be achieved using the PDM is very low (< 10−4). Acting as PTS, they represent the link between the material aspect of the primary calibration solutions and the immaterial world of the International System of Units (SI). The underlying concepts are discussed, the current status of implementation is summarised, and a roadmap of the necessary future activities in inorganic analytical chemistry is sketched. It has to be noted that smaller measurement uncertainties of the purity of high-purity materials not only have a positive effect on chemical measurements, but also trigger new developments and findings in other disciplines such as thermometry or materials science.
Energy efficient products often have a higher purchase price than less efficient alternatives. However, the life cycle costs are often lower due to the lower operating costs. From a purely economic point of view, efficient appliances are not only more ecological but often also more economical and, accordingly, should be purchased more frequently than less efficient appliances. However, this is not always the case. Information deficits are one of the major reasons of this discrepancy: the purchase price is visible during the purchasing process, but the follow-up costs are not, at least not in their exact amount. The EU Energy Label can be considered as a solution to close this gap. During the past decades, there has been a discussion on whether it would be better to communicate the monetary costs associated with energy consumption, since their calculation by the consumer is difficult or needs a high level of cognitive effort.
In this study, experiments and field studies on a total of 19 product groups were evaluated with regard to the question of whether the indication of costs instead of physical units affects the decision-making process of the consumer. It has been assessed under which circumstances it might positively influence the purchase decision of the customer, i.e. helping him or her to arrive at a more “energy efficient” decision. Overall, the results indicate that monetary claims possibly exceed the effect of claims on a physical basis when the costs or the differences between the alternatives available seem “relevant” to the consumer.
Clean technologies play a crucial role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting the climate. Hydrogen is a promising energy carrier and fuel that can be used in many applications. We explore the global hydrogen technological innovation system (TIS) by analyzing the three knowledge and technology transfer channels of publications, patents, and standards. Since the adoption of hydrogen technologies requires trust in their safety,this study specifically also focuses on hydrogen safety. Our results show that general and hydrogen safety research has increased significantly while patenting experienced stagnation. An analysis of the non-patent literature in safety patents shows little recognition of scientific publications. Similarly, publications are underrepresented in the analyzed 75 international hydrogen and fuel cell standards. This limited transfer of knowledge from published research to standards points to the necessity for greater involvement of researchers in standardization. We further derive implications for the hydrogen TIS and recommendations for a better and more impactful alignment of the three transfer channels.
Various microlevel circular economy indicators for assessing sustainability and, partly, additional sustainability characteristics have been developed, but an integrated solution considering the environmental, social, and economic pillars remains a research gap. Method: Based on a multimethod approach, including surveys and the analysis of existing sustainability assessment methodologies and standards, this paper proposes a concept for a multidimensional circular economy indicator tailored to public procurers. It relies on attractive existing building blocks including: the ecological scarcity method, European and international sustainability standards and indicators,and the STAR-ProBio-IAT concept. Results: This article presents the concept of the composite indicator Triple-C, consisting of 20 elements and aimed at facilitating sustainable circular public procurement. It is intended to be incorporated into software that facilitates sustainable product decisions among public procurers in Germany. Conclusions: We propose a generic indicator concept covering all three (environmental, social, and economic) sustainability pillars. More research and additional standards are needed to develop the Triple-C concept further into product-specific applications.
The COVID-19 pandemic posed new and manifold challenges to organizations and their operations worldwide. Conformity assessment bodies (CABs), such as testing or medical laboratories, certification, and inspection bodies, were also affected by the associated disruptions. Their role in this crisis is highly relevant, as CABs are essential pillars of the quality infrastructure: their activities ensure that products and services meet requirements as defined in standards and regulations, thereby contributing to their safety and reliability. The question arises of how CABs and their operations were affected by the pandemic and how they responded. To this end, we present the results of an international survey of 986 CABs of all types in Germany, the UK, Italy, and New Zealand. Overall, CABs reported, on average, a reduction in demand for their services during the pandemic, facing restrictions in all countries. In addition, the pandemic had an overall negative impact on the CABs’ investment and innovation activities. However, investments in digital infrastructure were increased as a countermeasure, with CABs reporting a higher need for digitalization. The paper highlights and discusses results from in-depth analyses relevant to policymakers and industry alike.
The therapeutic dose of lithium (Li) compounds, which are widely used for the treatment of psychiatric and hematologic disorders, is close to its toxic level; therefore, drug monitoring protocols are mandatory. Herein, we propose a fast, simple, and low-cost analytical procedure for the traceable determination of Li concentration in human serum, based on the monitoring of the Li isotope dilution through the partially resolved isotope shift in its electronic transition around 670.80 nm using a commercially available high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometer. With this technique, serum samples only require acidic digestion before analysis. The procedure requires three measurements—an enriched 6Li spike, a mixture of a certified standard solution and spike, and a mixture of the sample and spike with a nominal 7Li/6Li ratio of 0.82. Lanthanum has been used as an internal spectral standard for wavelength correction. The spectra are described as the linear superposition of the contributions of the respective isotopes, each consisting of a spin-orbit doublet, which can be expressed as Gaussian components with constant spectral position and width and different relative intensity, reflecting the isotope ratio in the sample. Both the spectral constants and the correlation between isotope ratio and relative band intensity have been experimentally obtained using commercially available materials enriched with Li isotopes. The Li characteristic mass (mc) obtained corresponds to 0.6 pg. The procedure has been validated using five human serum certified reference materials. The results are metrologically comparable and compatible to the certified values. The measurement uncertainties are comparable to those obtained by the more complex and expensive technique, isotope dilution mass spectrometry.
Despite the growing dependence of companies on information technology and the increasingly negative impact of security incidents worldwide, there is little research on the management of information security at the company level. This paper seeks to expand knowledge on the implementation of an information security management system based on the widely used international standard ISO/IEC 27001. We present motives, experienced impacts, and obstacles related to ISO/IEC 27001 implementation using data from a survey of 125 ISO/IEC 27001 certified companies in Germany. Since adoption rates vary between ICT and non-ICT sector companies, we highlight sector-related variations. We classify the adoption of this standard as a preventive organizational innovation and apply Structural Equation Modeling to unearth explanations for the comparatively low adoption of this management system standard among companies outside the ICT sector. We, therefore, derive recommendations for policymakers, standardization, and certification bodies to foster its diffusion.
An alternative method for lithium isotope amount ratio analysis based on a combination of high-resolution atomic absorption spectrometry and spectral data analysis by machine learning (ML) is proposed herein. It is based on the well-known isotope shift of approximately 15 pm for the electronic transition 22P←22S at around the wavelength of 670.8 nm, which can be measured by the state-of-the-art high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. For isotope amount ratio analysis, a scalable tree boosting ML algorithm (XGBoost) was employed and calibrated using a set of samples with 6Li isotope amount fractions, ranging from 0.06 to 0.99 mol mol–1, previously determined by a multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (MC-ICP-MS). The calibration ML model was validated with two certified reference materials (LSVEC and IRMM-016). The procedure was applied toward the isotope amount ratio determination of a set of stock chemicals (Li2CO3, LiNO3, LiCl, and LiOH) and a BAM candidate reference material NMC111 (LiNi1/3Mn1/3Co1/3O2), a Li-battery cathode material. The results of these determinations were compared with those obtained by MC-ICP-MS and found to be metrologically comparable and compatible. The residual bias was −1.8‰, and the precision obtained ranged from 1.9 to 6.2‰. This precision was sufficient to resolve naturally occurring variations, as demonstrated for samples ranging from approximately −3 to +15‰. To assess its suitability to technical applications, the NMC111 cathode candidate reference material was analyzed using high-resolution continuum source atomic absorption spectrometry with and without matrix purification. The results obtained were metrologically compatible with each other.
Smart Products Enable Smart Regulations—Optimal Durability Requirements Facilitated by the IoT
(2021)
The challenges and opportunities linked with IoT have been intensively discussed in recent years. The connectivity of things over their entire life cycle and the smart properties associated with it provide new functionalities and unprecedented availability of (usage) data. This offers huge opportunities for manufacturers, service providers, users, and also policymakers. The latter May impact policy areas such as the regulations on resource and materials efficiency under the Ecodesign Directive 2009/125/EC. With the general approach as it is practiced today, legal requirements are usually set for entire product groups without considering the products individually, including user behavior and environmental conditions. The increasing number of smart products and the growing availability of product data are sparking a discussion on whether these requirements could be more product and application-specific. This paper presents a method for calculating the economically and ecologically optimal durability of a product. It allows determining the point in time when a product should be replaced by combining consumer data with product design data. This novel Approach could contribute to making product regulation more flexible and possibly more efficient. In this context, fundamental challenges associated with smart products in policymaking are also discussed.
Accreditation is one of the pillars of a national Quality Infrastructure, as the competence of conformity assessment bodies is assured through accreditation performed by accreditation bodies. To compare the operation of accreditation bodies in Europe and to identify best practices, a management tool, the Process Maturity Benchmarking Tool, was developed and validated by applying it to European accreditation bodies. The benchmarking project comprised two major phases: In the first phase, the processes of accreditation bodies were systematically analyzed. A process map was developed, and processes of special relevance were identified and underpinned by indicators. In the second phase, the practical applicability of the theoretical model was demonstrated by analyzing the processes of eight European accreditation bodies. The results of this comparative assessment were subsequently discussed in a workshop with experts from those accreditation bodies, giving the opportunity to identify best practices.
This article has a twofold objective. First, to present a method to benchmark European accreditation bodies, based on the European Foundation for Quality Management excellence model. The successful application of the Process Maturity Benchmarking Tool gives evidence that it is a suitable and capable management tool to assess the processes of the European accreditation bodies and to benchmark them. Second, the article presents the results of the first adaption of the Process Maturity Benchmarking Tool. A general trend of process maturity was identified: While processes based on stakeholder involvement tend to have an overall lower maturity on average, internal processes are more mature.
In the light of digitalization and recent EU policy initiatives, information is an important asset that organizations of all sizes and from all sectors should secure. However, in order to provide common requirements for the implementation of an information security management system, the internationally well-accepted ISO/IEC 27001 standard has not shown the expected growth rate since its publication more than a decade ago.In this article, we apply web mining to explore the adoption of ISO/IEC 27001 through a series of 2664 out of more than 900 000 German firms from the Mannheim Enterprise Panel dataset that refers to this standard on their websites. As a result, we present a “landscape” of ISO/IEC 27001 in Germany, which shows that firms not only seek certifications themselves but often refer on their websites to partners who are certified instead. Consequently, we estimate a probit model and find that larger and more innovative firms are more likely to be certified to ISO/IEC 27001 and that almost half of all certified firms belong to the information and communications technology (ICT) service sector. Based on our findings, we derive implications for policymakers and management and critically assess the suitability of web mining to explore the adoption of management system standards.
Cost analysis of screening methods to find non-compliant models using the example of tumble dryers
(2019)
The European energy label was established to reduce energy consumption in Europe. All classes and values on the energy label are stated by the supplier. The task of market surveillance is to ensure correct labels and to validate their values through compliance tests. However, this can only be done for a small fraction of all models on the market, since physical tests are expensive. Screening methods can be used to narrow down the number of critical products before compliance tests are done to decrease the costs of finding non-compliant models.
This study shows a mathematical approach to analyze the cost benefits of screening methods to find non-compliant models. Furthermore, the analysis presented has been applied to 18 screening methods for tumble dryers. The performance test for tumble dryers consists of seven test runs. All screening methods evaluated are composed of a reduced number of test runs. The most efficient screening method reduces the surveillance costs by 40 %.
Minimum energy performance standards and labels are commonly used tools to reduce the household energy use thus mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. However, the technical foundation for minimum energy performance standards and labels are test procedures for rating and testing of appliances. To de- termine the seasonal cooling performance of air conditioners, the current test standards require fixing of the compressor speed of the units to achieve steady-state conditions; this way of operation, how- ever, differs from real-life use. To make the seasonal cooling performance testing better reflect the real use conditions, this study proposes a compensation method which can be conducted independently from manufacturer data and still allows modulation of the tested units. Our results show that the tested units behave differently under part-load conditions, which results in a lower energy efficiency rating for some of the tested devices.
The growing market penetration of heat pumps indicates the need for a performance test method that better reflects the dynamic behavior of heat pumps. In this contribution, we developed and implemented a dynamic test method for the evaluation of the seasonal performance of heat pumps by means of laboratory testing. Current standards force the heat pump control inactive by fixing the compressor speed. In contrast, during dynamic testing, the compressor runs unfixed while the heat pump is subjected to a temperature profile. The profile consists of the different outdoor temperatures of a typical heating season based on the average European climate and also includes temperature changes to reflect the dynamic behavior of the heat pump. The seasonal performance can be directly obtained from the measured heating energy and electricity consumption making subsequent data interpolation and recalculation with correction factors obsolete. The method delivers results with high precision and high reproducibility and could be an appropriate method for a fair rating of heat pumps.
Das Ziel dieses Kapitels besteht darin, die Rolle von Konformitätsbewertung für die Erhöhung der Cybersicherheit von Produkten, Dienstleistungen und Prozessen zu betrachten. Dazu wird der Begriff Cybersicherheit beleuchtet sowie ausgewählte Cybersicherheitsnormen kurz vorgestellt. Im Folgenden wird der regulative europäische Rahmen für die Konformitätsbewertung aus ordnungspolitischer Sicht sowie der aktuelle Verordnungsentwurf zum Cybersecurity Act dargestellt und kritsch beleuchtet.
Extraction, chromatographic separation, and quantification of low-concentration organic compounds in complex matrices are core challenges for reference material producers and providers of calibration services. Evidence of successful participation in formal, relevant international comparisons is needed to document measurement capability claims made by national metrology institutes (NMIs) and designated institutes (DIs). To enable NMIs and DIs to update or establish their claims, in 2014 the Organic Analysis Working Group (OAWG) initiated CCQM-K95.1 "Low-Polarity Analytes in a Botanical Matrix: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Tea". This was a follow-on comparison from CCQM-K95 which was completed in 2014.
The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) benz[a]anthracene (BaA) and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) are considered priority pollutants by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and are regulated contaminants in food, pose chromatographic separation challenges, and for which exist well-characterized measurement procedures and standard materials. BaA and BaP in a smoked tea were therefore selected as representative target measurands for CCQM-K95.1. Ten NMIs participated in CCQM-K95.1. The consensus summary mass fractions for the two PAHs are in the range of (50 to 70) ng/g with relative standard deviations of (6 to 10) %.
Successful participation in CCQM K95.1 demonstrates the following measurement capabilities in determining mass fraction of organic compounds, with molar mass of 100 g/mol to 500 g/mol and having polarity pKow −2, in a botanical matrix ranging in mass fraction from 10 ng/g to 1000 ng/g: (1) value assignment of primary reference standards (if in-house purity assessment carried out), (2) value assignment of single and/or multi-component organic solutions, (3) extraction of analytes of interest from the matrix, (4) cleanup and separation of analytes of interest from interfering matrix or extract components, and (5) separation and quantification using gas chromatography or liquid chromatography.
Solutions of organic analytes of known mass fraction are typically used to calibrate the measurement processes used to determine these compounds in matrix samples. Appropriate value assignments and uncertainty calculations for calibration solutions are critical for accurate measurements. Evidence of successful participation in formal, relevant international comparisons is needed to document measurement capability claims (CMCs) made by national metrology institutes (NMIs) and designated institutes (DIs). To enable NMIs and DIs to update or establish their claims, in 2015 the Organic Analysis Working Group (OAWG) sponsored CCQM-K131 "Low-Polarity Analytes in a Multicomponent Organic Solution: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Acetonitrile".
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) result from combustion sources and are ubiquitous in environmental samples. The PAH congeners, benz[a]anthracene (BaA), benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), and naphthalene (Nap) were selected as the target analytes for CCQM-K131. These targets span the volatility range of PAHs found in environmental samples and include potentially problematic chromatographic separations. Nineteen NMIs participated in CCQM-K131. The consensus summary mass fractions for the three PAHs are in the range of (5 to 25) μg/g with relative standard deviations of (2.5 to 3.5) %.
Successful participation in CCQM-K131 demonstrates the following measurement capabilities in determining mass fraction of organic compounds of moderate to insignificant volatility, molar mass of 100 g/mol up to 500 g/mol, and polarity pKow < −2 in a multicomponent organic solution ranging in mass fraction from 100 ng/g to 100 μg/g: (1) value assignment of primary reference standards (if in-house purity assessment carried out), (2) value assignment of single and/or multi-component organic solutions, and (3) separation and quantification using gas chromatography or liquid chromatography.
Standardization research is a fairly new and is a still-evolving field of research, with possibly major practical ramifications. This article presents a summary of the authors’ subjective views of the most pressing research topics in the field. These include, among others, standards (e.g. incorporation of ethical issues), the potential impact of standards, the corporate management of standardization and legal issues like Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). In addition, gaps have been identified with a respect to a basic understanding of standardization, suggesting a need for better education in the field.