Real-time precision monitoring of airborne Hazardous Organic NESHAP (HON) VOCs provides unsurpassed speed and precision for global environmental regulatory compliance

In response to recent guidance issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Syft Technologies has recently announced its rapid analysis solution for characterising Hazardous Organic NESHAP (HON) compounds. Robust one-minute methods for sampling these toxic VOCs have been developed which leverage the unparalleled speed, sensitivity and ease of use inherent to SIFT-MS. These methods have achieved MDLs in the low- to mid- part per trillion by volume (pptV) range.

SIFT-MS offers real-time, direct monitoring of VOCs and inorganic compounds in air. Its measurements offer significant advantages over traditional techniques that require long sample collection times and off-site laboratory analysis. Unlike these methods, which can miss short-term fluctuations in pollutant concentrations, SIFT-MS provides immediate and continuous data, allowing for timely detection of hazardous compounds. This capability enhances the precision of source identification and enables quicker responses to potential environmental threats, ensuring more effective monitoring and protection of public health.

The new EPA regulations for fenceline monitoring of the HON compounds stipulate that alternative monitoring methods must achieve MDLs at least one-third of the action level for the monitored compounds. For any SIFT-MS method, lower MDLs are easily achieved by increasing the duration of the monitoring method. The improvement in MDL is approximately proportional to the inverse square root of the method length.

For all the HON compounds recently characterised, SIFT-MS has dramatically better temporal resolution than the EPA-specified methods – passive and canister sampling – facilitating better source identification in the event of the concentration exceeding the action level. SIFT-MS has been adopted by governmental agencies and industry worldwide for environmental monitoring. For example, the South Korean government has relied on SIFT-MS for years to monitor toxic VOCs at both federal and state levels (Langford et al. (2023a)). The US EPA has also adopted SIFT-MS for use in mobile laboratories.