A NEAR-INFRARED DIODE LASER-BASED CONTINUOUS EMISSIONS MONITOR FOR NITROGEN OXIDES

This project addresses the development of diode-laser-based continuous-emissionsmonitors (CEMs) to meet the emissions monitoring requirements imposed on a widerange of industries by Federal and state clean air regulations. The overridingobjective is the development of new, highly reliably instrumentation that hassubstantially lower long term operating and maintenance costs than existinginstruments used in CEM applications. The instrument approach to be developedand tested in Phase I and Phase II will be readily extended to measurement ofadditional gases, such as carbon monoxide and methane. Detection limits for allgases will be 1 part per million or better in a measurement period of less than30 seconds.The Phase I/Phase II program will culminate in field testing of a prototype CEM.Key technical issues to be resolved during the program include: 1) optimizingsensitivity for detection of NO using a near-infrared diode laser, 2) decidingthe feasibility of using a single diode laser to detect both NO2 and O2, and3) verifying the effectiveness of their proposed low-cost, fully automated, self-calibration method.