Diagnostics for Emission Monitoring for Hazardous Waste Incineration

The unique attributes of resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (REMPI/TOFMS) for rapid, ultrasensitive, and selective detection of toxic organics make it a promising new tool for quantitative evaluation of incinerator performance. The spectral selectivity of resonance ionization mass spectrometry, realizable with jet-cooling, eliminates the need for the time-consuming capillary column sample separation of conventional GC/MS analysis. Recent research indicates that real-time repetitive monitoring of a wide class of trace emissions at the part-per-billion level (ppb) is possible with the REMPI/TOFMS method.[1,2] Indeed, REMPI detection capabilities for specific compounds are expected to significantly influence stategies for the use of surrogates for stack gas monitoring.