Pneumatic Focusing Gas Chromatography: A Continuous; Automated; Ambient, Fenceline & Fugitive Emissions Monitoring Instrument

VOC Technologies, Inc., will use the new technique of Pneumatic Focusing Gas Chromatography (PFGC, patent pending) in the development and testing of a commercial, continuous, speciated monitor for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). This instrument is capable of continuous, remote operation for periods of weeks at a time, transmitting data over a network connection or cellular telephone and achieving sensitivity of 50 pptV for benzene with a 250 cc air sample injected directly into the portable instrument. The goal of this Phase I research project is to produce a PFGC instrument that costs less than $15,000. Prototypes will be configured with series photoionization detectors (PIDs) and flame ionization detectors (FIDs) that will enable dual response for some types of analytes, including aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes). Detector comparison will determine whether a single PID, a single FID, or a dual detector instrument would be most useful. The FID has the advantages of: (1) requiring no maintenance, (2) universal sensitivity to VOCs and HAPs, and (3) potential for internal calibration on every sample using ambient methane concentrations while requiring compressed flame gases hydrogen and air or oxygen. The PID detector does not require compressed gases, but has limited response for some types of analytes and suffers from aging of the lamp. The PFGC instruments will be laboratory calibrated and field compared in a cooperative effort between VOC Technologies, Inc., and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality using standard U.S. Environmental Protection Agency protocols for canister sampling, including Method TO-14.