Portable Analyzer for Ultra-sensitive Detection and Quantification of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Shellfish

Adelphi Technology Inc. in collaboration with the Applied Physics Institute of Western Kentucky University developed a compact, portable, and robust battery-powered analytical instrument for analysis of PAHs in the field. The instrument is based on principles of analytical gas chromatography (GC) and has high environmental tolerance to impact, temperature, humidity, and contamination. The key advantages of our technology are the utilization of scrubbed ambient air as a carrier gas and the utilization of novel multisensory highly integrated platform as a GC detector. The detector’s short response and recovery time together with ultra-high sensitivity allowed us to obtain high-resolution chromatograms for PAHs from light to heavy on a single compact GC column. In our design, special attention was given to robustness and user friendliness of the device, so that a person with minimal technical skills could operate it with ease and confidence. Our SBIR Phase II project will be focused on transition to a commercial prototype through miniaturization and structural optimization, on achieving ppb limits of detection for heavy PAHs through implementation of pre-concentrator, on optimizing the time of scan through a flexible and variable temperature ramping and on technology validation by using laboratory GC-MS system as a reference