US EPA

1955575 

Book/Book Chapter 

Real time analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from atmospheric pressure combustion sources 

Apicella, B; Armenante, M; Panariello, M; Bruno, A; Spinelli, N 

2008 

AIDIC Servizi 

Milano, Italy 

AAAS08: 2nd Advanced Atmospheric Aerosol Symposium 

283-290 

English 

WOS:000270892200037 

The present paper regards the comparison between on-line and off-line analyses of light hydrocarbons and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) from atmospheric-pressure combustion sources for the validation of a recently developed apparatus for the real-time analysis of pollutants.



The experimental core of this apparatus is the time of flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS), which has been implemented for obtaining in real time complete mass spectra up to hundred of thousands of Dalton (nanometric dimensions). The particulate source used for the standardization of the technique is a premixed laminar flame. The on-line transfer of combustion gases from atmospheric pressure to the high vacuum of a mass spectrometer has been performed by a combination of a steady sampling flow from the flame with a pulsed molecular beam up to the ionization chamber of TOF-MS.



The high sensitivity and fast response of the technique should allow the application also to practical complex sources such as exhausts from engines and from industrial plants for energy production and waste disposal beside to atmospheric aerosols. The validation of the technique has been performed in this work by comparing the composition profiles of light hydrocarbons and PAH measured by TOF-MS with those evaluated by means of sampling and conventional on-line and off-line analytical techniques.



Conventional techniques are based on gas chromatography (GC). I was applied on-line with different detectors: flame ionization detector (FID) for the analysis of hydrocarbons from methane (C(1)) up to benzene (C(6)); thermoconducibility detector (TCD) for the analysis of CO, CO(2), O(2), H(2), H(2)O and N(2). Off-line GC equipped with a quadrupole mass spectrometer (MS) was applied to the condensed phases sampled from the flame and dissolved in dichloromethane for the analysis of PAH. 

Ranzi, E 

Chemical Engineering Transactions, vol. 16 

9788895608037 

2nd Advanced Atmospheric Aerosol Symposium (AAAS08) 

Naples, Italy 

September 9-12, 2008