Curtis Laush (Texas) and Brian Adair (North Carolina) will present at the Air & Waste Management Association's (A&WMA) Air Quality Measurement Methods and Technology conference to be held at the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel in California on November 7-9, 2017.

Curt's presentation, entitled "Rapid Monitoring of ppb-level BTX and SO2 in Ambient Air via Portable UV-DOAS," describes the development of a portable monitor to measure benzene, toluene, xylenes (BTX), and sulfur dioxide (SO2) in air. This technology provides refineries and related facilities with a new tool to characterize site-wide emissions in real time and reduce product loss.

Brian's presentation, entitled "Dual-Cell FTIR Analyses of Semiconductor Point-of-Use Abatement Devices," describes Curt's work to develop and apply a new method to test air in real time at multiple locations as applied to the inlet and outlet of a thermal oxidizer for destruction of pollutants produced in semiconductor fabrication.

Air Quality Measurement Methods and Technology provides a forum to showcase current advances in measurement technology covering all aspects of air quality, including ambient air, indoor air, point sources, and area sources. Professionals from academia, consulting, industry, government, and manufacturers gather to hear the latest information on available technology, including new monitoring networks and regulations from industry and government experts, as well as citizen and community monitoring efforts.

Founded in 1907, the Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan professional organization enhancing knowledge and expertise by providing a neutral forum for information exchange, professional development, networking opportunities, public education, and outreach to more than 5,000 environmental professionals in 65 countries. A&WMA promotes global environmental responsibility and increases the effectiveness of organizations to make critical decisions that benefit society.

Geostytec Participation

PRESENTER: Curtis Laush, Ph.D.
TITLE: Rapid Monitoring of ppb-level BTX and SO2 in Ambient Air via Portable UV-DOAS
SESSION: Measurement Technology Evaluation and Performance

Outside of the EPA petroleum refinery sector residual risk and technology review (RTR) rule, issued in 2015, there is a growing need to track site-wide emissions from plants in an effort to reduce product loss as well as environmental impact and odors within surrounding communities. To that end, the development of a portable extractive ultraviolet differential optical absorption spectrometer (UV-DOAS) air monitoring system, capable of benzene/toluene/xylenes (BTX) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) sensitivities on the order of 1 ppbv at measurement rates faster than 1 Hz, is discussed. The first-generation spectrometer is based on a pulsed UV light source, a high-resolution imaging spectrograph and a Peltier-cooled digital charged-coupled device (CCD) camera detector. It is interfaced to a custom made spherical mirror sample cell which maximizes the gas volume exchange rate while achieving a long optical path length for optimal detection limits. The entire analyzer is constructed with an area footprint small enough to be battery operated and easily transported in a small vehicle or cart while collecting representative air measurements in real-time. This kind of sampling scheme can enable mapping of fugitive emissions within an oil and gas refinery and/or site-wide transient emissions along fence-lines and in communities.

The detection limit data and calibrations presented here pertain to benzene. Besides the portability and ruggedness aspects the analyzer possesses, its high measurement time resolution will be emphasized in the data presented which involve a series of laboratory and field controlled emission release tests.

PRESENTER: Brian Adair, Ph.D.
TITLE: Dual-Cell FTIR Analyses of Semiconductor Point-of-Use Abatement Devices
SESSION: Measurement Technology Evaluation and Performance

A common pollution control technique utilized within the semiconductor industry, which includes point-of-use (POU) abatement devices for dry wafer deposition processes, is thermal oxidation. Process and chamber cleaning gases are directed into a thermal or catalytic oxidizer, broken up into a soup of incomplete combustion products and free radicals, then recombined mostly into chemically simpler (often fully oxidized) states for further exhaust management. The combustion mechanisms are relatively fast, which is usually necessary since the combination of process gases applied during deposition steps can change on the order of seconds to minutes. The net result is a highly variable air exhaust environment that requires a fast, accurate and speciating real-time monitoring method to effectively characterize.

Presented here is an analytical method, Dual-Cell Extractive Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy, that has been deemed acceptable to EPA to assess destruction and removal efficiencies (DREs) of fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-GHGs) from wafer deposition chambers. The method also serves to characterize the interesting combustion zone chemistry and by-product pollution emissions produced by these tools.

The dual-cell FTIR system employed a single interferometer, but two separate gas sample cells and infrared detectors plus appropriate signal processing electronics, to simultaneously measure the POU influent and effluent gas concentrations of several different chemical vapor deposition processes and chamber cleans.

In addition to illustration of the emission profiles pertaining to the process gases and their abatement by oxidation, combustion zone chemistry, the role of wet scrubbing on combustion dynamics, and production of important exhaust pollutants, such as criteria NOx, N2O, and F-GHGs, will be discussed.

More Information

Learn more about the event at: https://www.awma.org/measurements
Learn more about A&WMAat: https://www.awma.org/content.asp?contentid=144
For more information on air emissions testing and abatement, contact Curt Laush at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Brian Adair at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
To learn more about Curt, see his profile at: https://www.geosyntec.com/people/curtis-laush
To learn more about Brian, see his profile at: https://www.geosyntec.com/people/brian-adair