IONICON blog

For Airbus, cabin air quality is the key to a comfortable flight – IONICON PTR-MS technology helps the aircraft manufacturer analyzing the air.

On aircraft, cabin air quality contributes significantly to the comfort and well being of passengers and crews alike. Commercial aircraft operate primarily in the troposphere and lower stratosphere, which is an environment hostile to life. A sophisticated aircraft environmental control system ensures that our journey onboard aircraft usually is a comfortable experience despite outside conditions of -50°C, high ozone concentrations and only 1/5th of the ambient pressure on the earth’s surface. Outside air which is usually very clean, particularly during flight, is conveyed into the pressurized fuselage and approximately the same amount is discarded overboard by the environmental control system. The entire cabin air is exchanged with outside air every three minutes.

In an article in the Airbus / FAST magazine #50 (August 2012) Dr. Andreas Bezold (Airbus Operations GmbH) explains details of cabin air quality, the aircraft environmental control system and measurement campaigns involving an IONICON PTR-TOF 8000 instrument providing further insights:

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VOC emissions in our homes, offices or cars – an exemplary study of commercial air fresheners

Volatile Organic Compouns (VOCs) are chemicals that vaporize at room temperature and many of which are known to be harmful to our health or have a bad smell. Nearly every commercial product we use emits VOCs, some of them on purpose (e.g. air fresheners) but a lot of them unintentionally (e.g. furniture like carpets or paints).

Regulations exist to keep the level of VOC emissions low as many people react irritated to some of the substances. The so called ”Sick Building Syndrome” is a situation where according to the US EPA “…Building occupants complain of symptoms associated with acute discomfort…”.  ”Chemical contaminants from indoor sources” is cited as one of the “contributing factors to sick building syndrom”.

IONICON PTR-MS is often used for real-time quantification of trace VOCs in our outdoor environment, but also indoors. PTR-MS allows for straightforward, immediate analysis of air without any complicate sample preparation providing real-time results as mass spectra. Therefore many customers use PTR-MS for applications including:

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Safety and Protection of built Infrastructure to Resist Integral Threats

Terrorist attacks by bombing or CBR (Chemical, Biological and Radiological) are threats with a low likelihood but with extremely high impact.
There is strong need to protect critical infrastructures and utilities (malls, governmental buildings and embassies), train and subway stations against being damaged, destroyed or disrupted by deliberate acts of terrorism, criminal activity and malicious behaviour.

The overall aim of the SPIRIT project is to provide the technology and know-how for the protection of buildings and people against terrorist treat and to minimize the consequences of a terrorist attack in terms of number of casualties/injuries, damage and loss of functionality and services.

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The “Emissions and odours from materials” conference took place in Brussels from October 13-14, 2010.

PTR-MS is an ideal and versatile technology for the real-time quantification of VOCs in very low concentrations (sub pptv-range). This is the reason why PTR-MS is used e.g. in a product called the AMC-Monitor C-1000 for monitoring of critical compounds in the semiconductor industry. PTR-MS is also used in different studies of the air quality in simulated and real flight situations.

We held a talk about the PTR-MS technology, instrumentation, new developments and presented some application examples to the attendees of this two-days event. The main focus lay on VOCs emissions from materials in indoor air and controlled environments such as cleanrooms.

The participants were predominately specialists from the industry and scientists from academic institutions and had the chance to test PTR-MS themselves when visiting our exhibition corner.

Have a look at the program and download our slides here!