Continuous monitoring of ultratrace products of incomplete combustion during incineration with a novel mobile Jet-REMPI device

Jet-REMPI is our modification of the well-known REMPI mass spectrometry. This modification allows for a significant sensitivity improvement over more conventional designs without loosing the high selectivity which is normally found with REMPI. The improved sensitivity should enable on-line measurements in incineration. In order to test this we rebuilt our laboratory version of Jet-REMPI into a mobile apparatus which was tested in our own laboratory and in an EPA laboratory for dioxin measurements. In addition, it was field-tested at Research Center Karlsruhe. We got very good results. Examples are our detection limits around 1 ppt for benzene and around 10 ppt for 2,7 Cl2DD. In this paper the idea of Jet-REMPI is briefly outlined. The design of the new apparatus is displayed along with some of the test results. The discussion deals with the potential and the limitations of the improved method.