Minanre Gas Concentrators For Air Sampling

The goal of this project was to demonstrate the feasibility of a compact, lightweight, gas-sampling device with rapid-cycle-time characteristics. The highlights of our Phase I work include: (1) Demonstration of a compact gas sampler with integrated heater. This device has an order of magnitude greater adsorption capacity and much faster heating/cooling times than commercial sorbent tubes. (2) Completion of computational fluid dynamics modeling of the gas sampler to determine airflow characteristics for various design options. These modeling efforts guided the development and testing of the Mesochannel Gas Sampler prototype. (3) Testing of the Mesochannel Gas Sampler in parallel with tests of two packed-bed samplers. These tests showed the Mesochannel Gas Sampler represents a substantial improvement compared with the packed-bed approach. Our mesochannel heat-exchanger/adsorber architecture allows very efficient use of adsorbent mass, high adsorbent loadings, and very low pressure drop, which makes possible very high air-sampling rates using a simple, low-power fan. This device is well-suited for collecting samples of trace-level contaminants. The integrated heater, which forms the adsorbent-coated mesochannel walls, allows direct heating of the adsorbent and results in very rapid desorption of the adsorbed species. We believe the Mesochannel Gas Sampler represents a promising technology for the improvement of trace-contaminant detection limits. In our Phase II proposal, we outline several improvements to the gas sampler that will further improve its performance