Hardware improvements included materials and designs to improve sampling, reduce cost, and enhance ruggedness. New quantitative analysis software was developed. AFR recently demonstrated the ability to measure single-digit ppm levels of NO in the laboratory in the presence of the large amounts of water vapor found in stack gases. Since NO is the most difficult of the criteria pollutants to measure, better sensitivity to other emissions is expected.
Environmental regulations require the monitoring of many air pollution sources and species.
York was also concerned about the validity of the accepted manual sampling methods for aldehyde emissions. Most FT-IR stack monitors are modified laboratory instruments, not suitable for hostile industrial environments.