A REAL-TIME, CONTINUOUS MONITOR FOR HALOCARBONS AND NITROUS OXIDE

THIS PROJECT TESTS A NEW CONCEPT FOR AN AIR POLLUTION MONITOR TO DETECT A LARGE VARIETY OF HALOCARBONS AND NITROUSOXIDE (N2O) AT LEVELS FROM A FEW PARTS PER BILLION TO ABOUT 100 PARTS PER MILLION. THE MONITOR COMBINES EXISTING TECHNOLOGIES FOR ELECTRON CAPTURE DETECTORS AND DIODE LASERSTO PROVIDE A SIMPLE, REAL-TIME, CONTINUOUS CHEMICAL SENSOR. THE APPROACH ALLOWS A SENSITIVE GAS CHROMATOGRAPH DETECTOR TO BE USED AS A STAND-ALONE INSTRUMENT IN A SEMISPECIFIC MODE WITH NO CHROMATOGRAPH COLUMN. THE PHASE I EXPERIMENTALWORK WILL DEFINE THE RANGES OF SENSITIVITY AND LINEARITY, AND THE DYNAMIC RANGE OF THIS MONITOR FOR A VARIETY OF POLLUTANTS IN SIMULATED GASES REPRESENTING AMBIENT INDUSTRIAL AIR OR EFFLUENTS FROM MUNICIPAL OR INDUSTRIAL WASTE INCINERATORS. RESULTS OF THESE MEASUREMENTS WILL DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF MONITORS BASED ON THIS CONCEPT FOR STACK GAS MONITORING AND PROCESS CONTROL AS WELL AS AMBIENT MONITORING OF SPECIFIC KNOWN CONTAMINANTS.