Potential of passive-remote Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to detect organic emissions under the Clean Air Act

摘要

The Clean Air Act of 1990 regulates the emission of 198 air toxics. Currently, there is no existing technology by which a regulatory agency can independently determine if a facility is in compliance. We have successfully tested the ability of passive-remote Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to detect chemical plumes released in the field. Additional laboratory releases demonstrated that FTIR spectroscopy can detect target analytes in mixtures containing components which have overlapping absorbances. The FTIR spectrometer was able to identify and quantify each component released with an average quantitative error of less than 20% using partial least squares (PLS) analysis and 40% using classical least squares analysis (CLS) when calibration files containing pure components and mixtures were used. Calibration files containing only pure analytes resulted in CLS outperforming PLS analyses.