Technical Details

Millennium Project Number: M-2001-007

Project Title: Optical PCB Probe

Project Start Date: 2001

Projected End Date: 2004

Technical Details: NYGAS has been researching means for using in-situ test kits or instruments for the determination of PCB concentrations in pipeline liquids. Cross-contamination has been a challenging problem and has made one particular approach non-practical. In this project, the objective is to evaluate optical methods and develop a probe (that has been used successfully in another live gas main application by Advantica Ltd. of the United Kingdom) that incorporates measurement of PCB concentration in live gas mains.

A spectrometer will be used and liquid samples will be illuminated with a light source that is tuned to the frequencies where PCBs emit fluorescent light. The existence and intensity of the light at these frequencies will be used to quantify PCBs present in the liquids. Cross-contamination effects need to be explored but are expected to less of an issue than previous efforts because optical technologies have shown to be less prone to cross-contamination effects than chemical or biological methods. If there is cross-contamination, filtering will also be explored.

The project was structured in five phases. The first phase was to be funded by NYGAS (20%) and by the DOE National Energy Technology Lab (80%) but (9) months after the DOE/NETL award, they decided not to fund the project. As a result, this project did not go forward.

View Funding for Millennium Project M-2001-007