Beacon – Samplers for ambient and indoor air applications

Beacon Samplers for indoor and Ambient Air

Beacon Passive Soil Samplers have proved to be an excellent technology for soil gas surveys.  But did you know that Beacon has some great solutions for air sampling also? Beacon Environmental can target a broad range of compounds using absorbent samplers to passively collect VOCs and SVOCs in ambient and indoor air following established ISO and ASTM methods, as well as other international protocols. Beacon’s quantitative, passive sorbent samplers do not require pumps or electricity and can be used to collect samples over a brief period of time (e.g., hours) to weeks (e.g., 7 to 30+ days), thereby providing a time-integrated concentration in units of ug/m3 or ppbv.

Consider one ambient air sampling activity – Perimeter Air Quality Monitoring. Sampling air with passive samplers provides quality, accurate data and is less expensive than using Summa Canisters because of the fewer samplers that need to be collected and the reduced labour costs.

Passive sorbent samplers are typically placed at multiple stations around the perimeter of the site or facility. Passive samplers are deployed when there is an onsite exceedance identified with field meters or on a regular frequency for ongoing monitoring. As an example, following each sampling event, the set of sorbent tubes are retrieved, capped, and shipped to Beacon for analysis while another set of sorbent tubes are placed at each station. This process allows for on-going monitoring of emissions from the facility. Additional data are collected including meteorological information from local weather stations. The samples are thermally desorbed and analysed using gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) instruments to provide low detection limits with high quality and defensible data reports.

Beacon Chlorosorber Passive Sampler

Monitoring for Benzene exceedance at a refinery

The ChloroSorber™ is another example of the application of Beacon Passive Samplers. With the ChloroSorber™ sampler, Beacon can target chlorinated compounds with high-level precision and accuracy in indoor and ambient air following established U.S. EPA, ASTM and ISO methods, as well as other international protocols. The sorbent used is ideal for targeting PCE and its degradation products, including Vinyl Chloride, at trace levels.

Beacon’s quantitative ChloroSorber™ samplers do not require special shipping or importation requirements similar to canisters samples. Their ease of transport, simple sample collection procedures, and ability to report time-weighted average concentration data (ug/m3) at trace levels with third-party validated uptake rates make them the preferred sampling method for chlorinated compounds. The ChloroSorber™ has a 30-day hold time and is analyzed at Beacon’s accredited laboratory. To further facilitate the ease of transport, HydroTerra arranges the shipment of samplers to and from Beacon laboratories for our customers.

Chlorosorber Passive Sampler Kit