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Demonstration of VOC Fenceline Sensors and Canister Grab Sampling near Chemical Facilities in Louisville, Kentucky
Citation:
MACDONALD, M., E. Thoma, I. George, AND R. Duvall. Demonstration of VOC Fenceline Sensors and Canister Grab Sampling near Chemical Facilities in Louisville, Kentucky. Sensors. MDPI, Basel, Switzerland, 22(9):3480, (2022). https://doi.org/10.3390/s22093480
Impact/Purpose:
Energy production operations, refineries, chemical plants, and other industries and waste facilities can emit air pollutants and odorous compounds from fugitive leaks, process malfunctions, and area sources that are hard to detect and manage. From the shared perspective of industries, regulators, and communities, improved understanding of these emissions can yield many benefits such as safer working environments, cost savings through reduced product loss, lower airshed impacts, and improved community relations. Under its next generation emissions measurement (NGEM) program, ORD CEMM is working with a range of partners to develop and test NGEM tools that can assist facilities in detection and management of source emissions. This paper advances the VOC fenceline sensor field by reporting on a long term-study performed using prototype EPA SPod at a site near chemical facilities in west, Louisville KY. This paper describes the SPod technology and novel fenceline sensor data analysis approaches. The paper describes SPod sensor and canister observations from this deployment where consistent VOC detections were observed from a facility to the west of the monitoring site.
Description:
Experimental fenceline sensor pods (SPods) fitted with 30 second duration canister grab sampling (CGS) systems were deployed at a site near chemical facilities in Louisville, KY from June 4, 2018, to January 5, 2020. The objective of the study was to better understand lower cost 10.6 eV photoionization detector (PID)-based volatile organic compound (VOC) sensors and investigate their utility for near-source emissions detection applications. Prototype SPods containing PID sensor elements from two different manufacturers yielded between 78% and 86% valid data over the study, producing a dataset of over 120,000 collocated pair fenceline measurements averaged into 5-minute datapoints. Ten-second time-resolved SPod data from an elevated fenceline sensor signal day are presented, illustrating source emission detections from the direction of a facility 500 m west of the monitoring site. An SPod-triggered CGS acquired in the emission plume on this day contained elevated concentrations of 1,3-butadiene and cyclohexane [36 part per billion by volume (ppbv) and 637 ppbv, respectively], compounds known to be emitted by this facility. Elevated concentrations of these compounds were observed in a subset of the valid 61 manual and triggered CGS grab samples acquired during the study, with winds from the west. Using novel wind-resolved visualization and normalization approaches described herein, the collocated pair SPod datasets exhibited similarity in emission source signature. With winds from the west, approximately 50% of SPod readings were above our defined theoretical detection limit indicating persistent measurable VOC signal at this site. Overall, this 19-month study demonstrated reasonable prototype SPod operational performance indicating that improved commercial forms of lower cost PID sensors could be useful for select VOC fenceline monitoring applications.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Demonstration of VOC Fenceline Sensors and Canister Grab Sampling near Chemical Facilities in Louisville, Kentucky