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RESPONSE OF PORTABLE VOC (VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS) ANALYZERS TO CHEMICAL MIXTURES
Citation:
DuBose, D., G. Brown, AND G. Harris. RESPONSE OF PORTABLE VOC (VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS) ANALYZERS TO CHEMICAL MIXTURES. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/2-81/110 (NTIS PB81234262), 1981.
Description:
The report gives the responses of two types of portable VOC analyzers (Century Systems OVA-108 and Bacharach TLV Sniffer), calibrated with methane and used to measure a variety of chemical vapor mixtures. Instrument response data for both binary and ternary mixtures of selected chemicals are presented. Various empirical models were evaluated to determine an appropriate method of estimating mixture concentration based on instrument response. The evaluation concluded that the instrument response for a mixture falls between the responses expected for the pure compounds in the mixture. Thus, an interpolation or weighted average model can be used to predict the response for mixtures based on known responses for individual chemicals. Both linear and logarithmic weighted average models are applied to the data and presented with estimates of accuracy. In general, these models predicted the instrument response to within 30% of the observed value.