AIHce 2015

HNU PID Analyzers, LLC will be exhibiting at the 2015 American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition #AIHce in Salt Lake City, UT at booth 941. We are also participating in the technical program in the Real Time Detection Systems podium session addressing real time detection of ppb levels of benzene in industrial atmospheres. See the full Real Time Detection Systems program below. 

PO123

Real-Time Detection Systems

Speakers at the Real-Time Detection Systems podium session at the American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition in Salt Lake City on June 3, 2015. L to R: K.  Brown, P. Smith, D. DeBord, J. Hill, J. Maclachlan, W. Haag and T. Pearce.

Wednesday June 3, 2015| 10:00 AM – Noon

Topic:
Real-Time Detection Systems

Arrangers: W. Groves, Energy and Mineral Engineering, Penn State University, University Park, PA; P. Smith, U.S. Department of Labor – OSHA, Sandy, UT. Moderator: T. Pearce, OSHA, Edmond, OK. Monitor: L. Monteith, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.

10:00 AM – 10:20 AMCS-123-01 NIOSH Center for Direct Reading and Sensor Technologies: Enabling a New Era of Safety, Health, Well-being, and Productivity. D. DeBord, NIOSH, Cincinnati, OH; M. Hoover, Morgantown, WV.

10:20 AM – 10:40 AMSR-123-02 Field-portable Fourier Transform infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy for the Measurement of 1-bromopropane Concentrations in Air. P. Smith, U.S. Department of Labor – OSHA, Sandy, UT.

10:40 AM – 11:00 AM SR-123-03 Real-Time Detection of ppb Levels of Benzene in Industrial Atmospheres. J. Maclachlan, J. Driscoll, PID Analyzers, LLC, Sandwich, MA.

11:00 AM – 11:20 AMCS-123-04 Worker Exposure Assessment Strategies for Tank Gauging Operations Conducted in the Bakken Oilfields (North Dakota). J. Hill, P. Smith, D. Pearce, U.S. Department of Labor – OSHA, Sandy, UT.

11:20 AM – 11:40 AMSR-123-05 Real-Time Detection System for Measuring VOCs, Temperature, Humidity, and Location. K. Brown, K. Mead, R. Kovein, P. Shaw, NIOSH, Cincinnati, OH; R. Voorhees, Univ. Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH; A. Brandes, MeasureNet LLC, Cincinnati, OH.

11:40 AM – NoonSR-123-06 Combatting Humidity and Other Matrix Gases on the Response Hand-held PIDs. W. Haag, Ion Science USA, Stafford, TX.

Real-Time Detection of ppb Levels of Benzene in Industrial Atmospheres

Accepted for presentation at the 2015 American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition on Wednesday June 3, 2015 at SPCC: 355 C

Real-Time Detection of ppb Levels of Benzene in Industrial Atmospheres 

By: J.N. Driscoll and Jennifer Maclachlan

Objective

The OSHA method for benzene involves the collection on a charcoal tube and return to the lab, for desorption with carbon disulfide and analysis by gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector (GC-FID). While the PID is an ideal tool for detecting low or sub ppm levels of benzene, it responds to all VOC’s, so the measurement of benzene at or below 1 ppm is not very accurate.  We propose to develop a hand held GC with a PID to detect to detect low ppb of benzene in real time and “on site”.

Method

The hand held GC weighs less than 3 pounds, is able to operate for >6 hours on a battery,is easy to operate and has a small external tank for carrier gas (nitrogen) that can be clipped onto a belt. The hand held GC stores the peak height and concentration data. If a chromatogram is needed, up to 20 are stored in memory and if more are needed, the 0-1 VDC analog output can be connected directly to a PC with PeakWorks.

Results

A permeation tube was used to generate ppb levels of benzene in air. A chromatogram of 500 ppb of benzene in air is shown in the figure below. The detection limit for benzene is approximately 5 ppb. The analysis time is 2 minutes presently but with some optimization, it can be reduced to about 1 minute which would be ideal.  

Conclusions

The GC/PID method provides a very rapid and sensitive technique for the analysis of benzene  at ppb levels. The precision of benzene for 5 samples at 1/10^th of the PEL was excellent at 5.8%. A special precolumn with back flushing removes interferences.

Section: Real Time Detection Systems #RTDSC #RealTimeDetection

We'll have a booth in the expo: 941. Learn more here.