Indo-Australian Environmental Monitoring Pioneer Merges with Growing French Giant ACOEM to Accelerate Global Impact

The Need for Trace Gas Monitoring Stations

Jun 08 2009

The last ten years have seen environmental pollution levels decrease significantly in many countries including Australia and the USA. Thus the measurement of background (low concentration) gas levels becomes correspondingly more essential. Indeed, air quality model evaluation, greenhouse studies, scientific studies ranging across technological, health and atmospheric process disciplines, all require the development of trace gas analysis.

Trace gas monitoring is also valuable to measure background pollutant levels that give an indication of natural ambient air composition without the activity of humans. This allows accurate comparisons to be made between polluted and non polluted areas. Ecotech, an Australian gas analyzer manufacturer, understands the importance of background monitoring and has developed the EC9800 trace gas analyzer series measuring CO, SO₂ and NO_X. This series was the first to have U.S. EPA approval and demonstrates Ecotech’s extensive experience and expertise in trace gas analysis. Ecotech has recognized that station design is just as important as the analyzer design with issues such as sample path length, use of inert materials, calibration and data acquisition considered in the overall design. These developments have produced systems that are capable of monitoring concentrations as low as 50 ppt for NO_X, 100 ppt for SO₂ and 25 ppb for CO. All EC9800 Trace gas analyzers are either Reference or Equivalent methods under U.S. EPA regulations:

• Sulfur Dioxide (SO₂) Ecotech Model EC9850T EQSA-0193-092

• Carbon Monoxide (CO) Ecotech Model EC9830T RFCA-0992-088

• Nitrogen oxides (NO_X) Ecotech Model EC9841T RFNA-1292-090

Ecotech’s experience in the design, manufacture and installation of trace gas monitoring stations has led to the development of many extensive networks throughout the world including China, the USA, Cyprus, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia and Antarctica.

One such successful network has been implemented by the Chinese Meteorological Administration (CMA), installing trace gas Air Quality Monitoring Stations (AQMS) from Ecotech in many provinces including Shangri-La, nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas. The two main reasons for measuring these pollutants are:

To determine if the area has been affected by industrial pollution (compared to other regions of China)
To perform long term monitoring studies and measure any changes in pollutant levels over many years.

Such data can be used by authorities such as the CMA to analyze the impact of global warming, improve accuracy in meteorological forecasts and to monitor cross border pollution.