LASER INDUCED FLUORESCENCE MONITORING OF SOLVENT RECOVERY PROCESSES

Developments in on-site spent solvent recovery have implications for reducedenvironmental pollution in the dry cleaning, furniture and paint manufacturingindustries as well as in a range of commercial services. Effluents from solventrecovery operations include fugitive emissions, vent stack gases and water/solvent mixtures. At present, the scale of solvent-recovery operations incertain industries is too small to allow cost-effective application of gas orliquid chromatographic instrumental methods, yet the total volume of pollutantsdischarged from these operations is environmentally significant. To remedy thissituation, this proposal suggests the development of low-cost continuous solventmonitors based on near-infrared fluorescence. The innovation contained in theproposal is the combination of sensitive diode laser excited fluorescence methodswith integrated methods of instrument design to achieve the Phase I TechnicalObjectives, which include the evaluation of near-infrared fluorophores forsolvent analysis, the design of an integrated laser excited fluorescenceanalyzer, and acquisition of families of test data to provide information for usein instrument optimization and extensive field-testing in Phase II of theprogram. The significance of the program is the reduction of solvent dischargeand improvement is separation operations afforded by low-cost in situ chemicalanalysis.