Palas AQ Guard series launched

Palas, leading developer and manufacturer of high-precision devices for the generation, measurement and characterization of particles in the air, launched the AQ Guard series for measuring indoor and outdoor pollution.

Vlaams Milieu Maatschappij, the Belgian Air Quality Monitoring authority for the Flanders region (VMM – www.vmm.be) has chosen to work with Envicontrol for monitoring ozone (O3). Twenty T400 analysers from TAPI will be supplied starting early 2022.

After more than 10 years of experience in mercury trace gas monitoring with Tekran devices, ISSeP (Institut Scientifique de Service Public - Belgium), has renewed his confidence in the product by buying the new Tekran 2537X. This analyser, based on gold preconcentration with atomic fluorescence detection principle, measures the total gaseous mercury (TGM) with a sensitivity lower than 0.1 ng/m3.

Formaldehyde, chemical formula HCHO or CH2O, is a colorless gas with a pungent odor. Levels above 0.1 ppm can cause allergy and acute health problems, e.g. sore throat, skin irritation, nausea, scratchy eyes and cough. Formaldehyde (HCHO) is also classified as highly carcinogenic compound. Exposure to moderate amounts of HCHO has been linked to cancer, such as leukemia.

Stable isotopes act as tracers for studying flows and fluxes of material through ecosystems and the atmosphere. In practice, scientists measure the stable carbon isotope content of air, plants and soil to quantify many phenomena including the recycling of carbon dioxide within forests, water use efficiency, partitioning ecosystem carbon exchange into its components, gross primary productivity and ecosystem respiration, and to identify and quantify the distribution and contributions of plant species to global productivity. In addition, stable isotopes of carbon may be used to determine the effectiveness of carbon sequestration strategies. For these studies, investigators require fast, accurate measurements over a wide range of carbon dioxide concentrations.

ABB LGR-ICOS Carbon Dioxide Isotope analyzers exceed all of these requirements.

The INRAe of Narbonne has bought an ultra-high performance photoacoustic detector for solid, semi-solid and liquid samples (a PA301 module produced by Gasera). The PA301 is used as an accessory for any FTIR device. Last week, the Envicontrol team provided on site setup and a full training has been given.

Los Gatos Research (LGR) now offers more analyzer choices to measure surface-atmosphere fluxes. Traditionally, there are four main flux measurement techniques: Eddy Covariance, Relaxed Eddy Accumulation, Gradient and Chamber-based. Though carbon dioxide and water vapor are the most common greenhouse gases measured, in many ecosystems a number of different gases must be measured. LGR's technology has improved rapidly over the years and new analyzers are now available allowing scientists to expand their research by measuring other greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia, and carbonyl sulfide.

The Vlaams Milieu Maatschappij (VMM) has chosen to work with Envicontrol for the NOx monitoring within the Flemish air quality monitoring network. The T200 analysers from TAPI will take place soon and 45 units are foreseen to be delivered before the end of 2021.