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U.S. Department of Energy
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On-site analysis of landfill gas by GC/MS

Conference ·
OSTI ID:276340
 [1]
  1. South Coast Air Quality Management District, Diamond Bar, CA (United States)

Samples of landfill gas are analyzed for benzene, toluene and xylenes by GC/PID; for chlorinated compounds by GC/ECD; and for sulfur compounds by GC/SCD. Use of GC/MS could allow simultaneous analysis of all three classes. While samples will always need to be taken for legal/archival purposes, On-Site analysis by GC/MS could potentially save many hours of laboratory analysis time while providing spectral identity confirmation. The author used a Viking Spectra Trak 620 field-mobile GC/MS to analyze landfill gas and landfill gas fired boiler exhaust on-site at Rio Hondo College. He also took samples of the landfill gas and boiler exhaust for later analysis at the lab. He was most interested in how rugged the GC/MS system was, how long would it take to analyze samples and how accurate it could be compared to laboratory analysis. The author was able to analyze the landfill gas and boiler exhaust simultaneously with the taking of samples for later laboratory analysis. After returning to the lab the samples were analyzed by laboratory personnel with good agreement. The author was also able to qualitatively identify numerous other unquantitated compounds present in the landfill gas using the spectral identification capabilities of GC/MS.

OSTI ID:
276340
Report Number(s):
CONF-950209--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English