Advancing environmental protection through real-time monitoring of mobile, fenceline, and ambient air

In an effort to more tightly control VOC and ozone pollution within the highly industrialized and densely populated nation of South Korea, its government has turned to real-time and on-site analysis techniques to enable a fast response to pollution incidents. To this end, the Korean government has adopted selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) for rapid identification and source of these emissions. A recent publication (Environments 2023, 10, 201) describes how it has been applied to emission source characterization, fenceline monitoring, ambient monitoring, pollution mapping, and incident response (including the use of drone-based sampling) for hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), odor nuisance species, and compounds that have high ozone formation potential (OFP) and/or contribute to secondary aerosol (SOA) formation.

In a similar study (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2023, 57, 21, 8026–8034), researchers at the Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratory (WACL) at the University of York, United Kingdom adopted SIFT-MS for the analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to experimentally verify – for the first time – that motor vehicle screen wash is a significant unreported source of VOC emissions (especially for ethanol and methanol). This research has important implications for those involved in policy decisions related to the phase-out of fossil fuel-powered vehicles, since electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles are emission sources.

To simplify the process of collecting mobile monitoring data, Syft Technologies recently released SyftEnviro environmental monitoring software. It is a comprehensive solution for visualizing environmental monitoring data collected during real-time mobile monitoring campaigns. SyftEnviro software provides an integrated interface for collecting, mapping, and analyzing environmental data. Quantitative SIFT-MS data can be geospatially mapped and visualized while on the move in a mobile lab and later compared to historical data. This user-friendly software integrates all analytical data from environmental surveys and includes an interface for data visualization, instrument control, and status updates.