Performing comparative determinations on pollutant immissions through reference methods and by means of infrared spectroscopy

Abstract

Atmospheric pollutants come from a series of anthropic activities and natural processes. When feeding large amounts of polluting species into the atmospheric layer, the issue of air pollution phenomenology is stated. Atmospheric pollution implies a risk generated by exposure to harmful substances (under different forms of aggregation) for all living organisms in the biosphere. This paper aims to identify the possibility of using an alternative method of determining air quality compared to currently used reference methods. There is the question of checking through statistical tools of the advantage of using a single determination to obtain the pollutant species and the gas concentrations Currently, carbon oxide concentration is determined by non-dispersive IR spectroscopy, nitrogen oxides are determined by chemiluminescence and sulphur dioxide is determined by UV fluorescence, these being the reference methods. For the achievement of highlighting results, the gas concentrations will be determined both by the reference methods and by an alternative method involving Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, imposing on the alternative method quality assurance criteria. By knowing the pollutant levels, can develop various air pollution control technologies and strategies in order to reduce air pollution, also design effective and economically efficient air pollution control strategies for human protection. Expected results involve data processing, obtained from field measurements of polluting species (CO, NO_x SO₂), through statistical instruments (repeatability / reproducibility limit, bias, accuracy and uncertainty of measurement) and establishing the framing of the results in the performance requirements imposed by the specialized literature in order to use modern methods for quantifying the level of air pollution.