You are here:
Field demonstration of a novel portable automated gas chromatograph for speciated air toxic VOC measurement in Louisville, KY
Citation:
George, I., E. Thoma, R. Duvall, T. Wu, T. Chou, S. Liu, D. Chung, P. Deshmukh, J. Cansler, A. Cooley, B. Dewitt, AND B. Paris. Field demonstration of a novel portable automated gas chromatograph for speciated air toxic VOC measurement in Louisville, KY. AWMA Air Quality Measurement Methods and Technology Conference, Durham,NC, April 02 - 04, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
The Rubbertown area of Louisville, KY is burdened by air toxic VOC emissions from multiple nearby pollution sources. VOC emissions can contribute to ozone formation, negatively impact local air quality and cause negative health effects on affected communities. This work discusses next generation emissions measurement technologies that are being utilized to help local regulators detect VOC emissions in the Rubbertown area.
Description:
Volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions have negative effects on air quality, human health, and climate. Many VOCs are hazardous air pollutants, or air toxics, that can contribute to deleterious health impacts on affected communities and industrial workplace environments. Fugitive VOC emissions, in particular, represent a significant challenge to emissions detection and mitigation efforts due to their highly variable nature. To meet this challenge, regulatory agencies will need to evolve air toxic VOC measurement strategies from currently relied upon traditional offline time-integrated measurement methods towards developing next-generation emissions measurement (NGEM) approaches. For effective fugitive VOC emissions detection, these NGEM techniques will require the following desired characteristics: higher time resolution, cost-effectiveness, portability for field deployment, and enhanced sensitivity and accuracy, particularly for speciated air toxic VOCs. In this work, we will discuss the application of one promising NGEM technology, a portable automated gas chromatograph (autoGC), to better understand the fugitive air toxic VOC emission sources in the Rubbertown industrial area of Louisville, KY as part of the Rubbertown NGEM Demonstration Project. The field autoGC is a prototype instrument that incorporates several cutting-edge measurement technologies including miniaturized GC components and a novel sensor array detector capable of measuring a range of speciated air toxic VOCs of concern in the Rubbertown area. Results from lab evaluations of this advanced NGEM technology and from its year-long field demonstration in Louisville, KY will be presented.