FTIR Gas Monitoring Seminar well attended

A seminar focusing on multiparameter gas detection for both ambient and stack monitoring applications drew a large audience to its Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes venue, reports organisers Quantitech Ltd. Attendees came from a variety of industries including construction, industrial controls, Environment Agency, education, research, consultancies, test houses, hospitals, police, DSTL, Health & Safety Laboratory, waste management and abatement equipment manufacturers.

Representing FTIR manufacturers Gasmet – which also sponsored the event - Antti Heikkila provided delegates with help and advice on how to maximise the performance of FTIR multiparameter gas analysers. He also explained the procedures for utilising validation gases, offering suggestions for ensuring accurate data whilst employing the minimal number of span gases.

Dr Marc Coleman from the National Physical Laboratory presented an overview of Technical Guidance Note M22, which covers the Environment Agency’s requirements when monitoring stack gas emissions using FTIR instruments. Requirements for annual and onsite instrument checks were described in addition to the spectroscopic criteria for selecting validation gases and the dependency upon the analytes to be monitored.

Leading the ambient monitoring session Quantitech’s Dr Andrew Hobson demonstrated the application of a portable FTIR instrument, the Gasmet DX4030, which has been chosen by the Government’s multiagency air quality team for incident investigations. The final presentation, given by Dominic Duggan, covered some of the many

applications for which FTIR is the ideal gas detection technology, including stack gas and incident response, the analysis of combustion gases for product testing, health & safety investigations, vehicular emissions analysis, and environmental research.

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Following the seminar, a tour of Bletchley Park ended a day that received unanimous approval by the delegates. Bruce Kester from Envirodat said: "This was an enjoyable event and it was useful to meet other professionals that use FTIR. We use the Gasmet equipment for difficult applications to investigate the components of gas mixtures – especially organic fractions.”

Similarly, Ian Robertson from Analox found the presentations very interesting, adding: "FTIR technology may be useful in some of the specialist applications in which we are active."