Utilization of a portable microchip gas chromatograph to identify and reduce fugitive emissions at a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant

Eli Lilly and Company utilizes a mass balance procedure to track solvent usage at its manufacturing and pilot plant locations. Although the mass balance procedure provides accurate usage information, it is not useful as a tool for rapid identification and quantitation of fugitive volatile organic compounds (VOCs). As government regulations and permitting requirements demanded more specific information, it became obvious that a system was needed for rapid identification and quantitation of fugitive VOCs. In 1991, Eli Lilly and Company investigated both technology and methodology which would identify and quantitate specific VOCs. The objective was to reduce fugitive VOC emissions by understanding both the sources of emissions and the operating parameters that allowed their occurrence. After reviewing existing technologies such as FT-IR, mass spectrometry, and gas chromatography, the company purchased five portable microchip gas chromatographs. These instruments were incorporated into a routine monitoring program that profiled various production facilities and tank farms for specific VOC emissions. Once baseline emissions were established, the instruments were strategically located to monitor the effect of various improvement activities. The result of using portable gas chromatographs to establish an emission profile was an 86% reduction in fugitive VOC emissions over a 2-year period. This article presents a portable gas chromatograph and sample interface that quantitates methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol, acetone, acetonitrile, ethyl acetate, methylene chloride, and toluene in 2 minutes. A typical linear range for these compounds is 5 ppm to 1%. The philosophy of incorporating this technology into routine manufacturing processes will also be discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Field Analyt Chem Technol 1:367–374, 1997