A MOBILE RESONANCE-ENHANCED MULTIPHOTON IONIZATION TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS-SPECTROMETRY DEVICE FOR ONLINE ANALYSIS OF AROMATIC POLLUTANTS IN WASTE INCINERATOR FLUE-GASES - FIRST RESULTS

We have applied a newly designed, mobile, resonance-enhanced multiphot on ionization (REMPI) time-of-flight mass spectrometer for real-time o n-line emission analysis of flue gases hom a technical waste incinerat ion pilot plant. With one-color REMPI (laser wavelength: 248 nm), benz ene, toluene, phenol, several polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH, h ere naphthalene, anthracene/phenanthrene, pyrene etc) and methylated P AH were detected in the flue gas, mostly in the 10-100 ppb concentrati on range. Time resolutions up to 5 Hz were achieved. A change of combu stion process operating conditions caused significant variations in th e time-intensity profiles of different combustion products. This demon strates the feasibility of the REMPI approach for real-time on-line tr ace analysis of process gases and combustion flue gases. Numerous prac tical industrial applications, ranging from emission monitoring and co ntrol, to process control in the chemical, mineral oil, or food indust ries, and to quality control are possible. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & So ns, Ltd.