INLINE GAS/AIR MONITORING SYSTEM FOR DEVELOPMENT AND SMALL SCALE PRODUCTION IN PROCESSING FACILITIES

The implementation of new environmental and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) regulations due to take effect by the year 2000 make it imperative that industrial and manufacturing processing facilities take steps to monitor, characterize, and control stack emissions in accordance with EPA air permit requirements. Inline gas/air monitoring techniques that permit simultaneous, continuous monitoring of many different chemical compounds in trace amounts will provide facilities and plants with the ability to precisely quantify emission amounts and components. Technologies are available or are being developed which allow measurement of fifteen (15) or more compounds at the same time. This proposal suggests some possible approaches for such monitoring which included developing appropriate methods based on gas chromatography, but also examines the state-of-the-art in Fourier Transform Infrared optical monitoring technology.