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TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION REPORT CEREX ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES UV HOUND POINT SAMPLE AIR MONITOR
Citation:
KOGLIN, E. N. TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION REPORT CEREX ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES UV HOUND POINT SAMPLE AIR MONITOR. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-06/142, 2006.
Impact/Purpose:
technology evaluation
Description:
The USEPA's National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC) Technology Testing and Evaluation Program (TTEP) is carrying out performance tests on homeland security technologies. Under TTEP, Battelle evaluated the performance of the Cerex UV Hound point sample air monitor in detecting toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) and chemical warfare (CW) agents in air. The UV Hound operates on the principle that, when exposed to light, gases absorb various characteristic wavelengths of th elight to an extent proportional to the amount of gas in the light beam. Each gas has a unique spectral fingerprint that can be used to identify and quantify gaseous components. In the UV Hound, a xenon or deuterium lamp produces an ultraviolet light beam. Specially designed optics focus the beam and project it through the air. A receiver then collects the light and focuses it into a spectrometer. The spectrometer analyzed the wavelengths and magnitudes of the received light. The resulting single-beam spectrum (the plot of signal strength versus wavelength of light) contains all of the spectral information needed to identify and quantify the gases present in the air traversed by the light beam.
The following performance characteristics of the UV Hound were evaluated in tests with the TIC chlorine as the target gas: response time, recovery time, accuracy of hazard identification, response threshold, temperature and humidity effects, interference effects, cold-/hot-start behavior, and operational characteristics. The evaluation included sampling potential indoor interferents, both with and without chlorine gas. Interferents included latex paint fumes, N,N-diethylaminoethanol (DEAE), air freshener vapors, ammonia cleaner vapors, and a mixture of hydrocarbons. Response threshold tests were also conducted for the following TICs: hydrogen cyanide, North Atlantic Treaty Organization military designation (AC), arsine, cyanogen chloride, and phosgene; CW agents sarin and sulfur mustard. (This is the firt test of the UV Hound for detection of these six chemicals.)
Conclusion: The UV Hound detected CK, SA, CG, GB and HD at concentrations typically a few times their respective AEGL-2 or IDLH level. AC could not be detected with the UV Hound at twice its IDHL level. A response threshold of about 7.5 ppm was found for chlorine gas. At that level, the majority of challenges produced a stable green light response, indicating a strong fit to reference spectral data for chlorine gas.
URLs/Downloads:
TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION REPORT-CEREX ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES UV HOUND POINT SAMPLE AIR MONITOR (PDF, NA pp, 436 KB, about PDF)TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION REPORT CEREX ENVIRONMENTAL (PDF, NA pp, 330 KB, about PDF)