Monitoring leaking gases by OP-FTIR remote sensing

Measurement of leaking gases using Open Path Fourier Transform Infrared (OP-FTIR) spectroscopy was carried out in this study to acquire Path Integrated Concentration (PIC) data. Three hazardous Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) namely methylene chloride, chloroform and acetone were analyzed. For the two-component leaking source, the PIC data were easily obtained through ordinary calculation and compared to those obtained from Artificial Neural Network (ANN). When the leaking source was composed of three VOCs whose characteristic peaks interfere with each other, it was necessary to do spectral correction for multicomponent analysis with ANN. The Absorbance-Wavenumber-Time 3D spectra of the leaking sources and concentration variations with the leaking time were plotted. The results showed that OP-FTIR is a good quantitative analytical method for indoor or field air pollution. Further more, the remote sensing OP-FTIR system could be utilized to continuously monitor many more toxic gases and work as an alert system for the real time monitoring of hazardous gases beyond normal working conditions of various kinds of areas, such as living or industrial areas.