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| After repeated findings that the Baton Rouge area is in violation of federal air quality regulations, state officials recently ordered installation of equipment for detecting the source of the problem. As it happens, LSU Environmental Studies Professor Ed Overton may have just the device to aid in solving Baton Rouge’s air quality mystery. Overton has been involved in an LSU research project that is part of a federal government-sponsored program to develop hand-held instrumentation for detecting chemical warfare agents and their building blocks. While involved with this project, Overton developed and patented a new gas chromatography, or “chemical detector,” device for sampling and analyzing air components. Essentially, the new device involves a process whereby air samples are captured by a small sampling mechanism and run through tiny, hair-sized heated columns to separate the chemical components or contents. A small, attached computer system handles the data processing and turns the instrument’s output into useful information. According to Overton, the new device is basically a smaller, mobile version of an environmental monitoring device used in chemical manufacturing plants around the world for detection of such things as “highly reactive, volatile chemical compounds.” The older device is a large, lab-bound piece of machinery that requires a substantial amount of power to operate. Using it requires that air samples be taken from targeted areas and transported back to a lab for an analysis. The new device, he said, is much faster, smaller, more light-weight and requires far less power. In addition, it can be taken into the field, where it can analyze air samples on the spot and produce results in minutes. “It is comparable to going from a mainframe computer to a desktop to a laptop PC,” he said. Overton said he has formed a company to commercialize the device – called the microFAST GC – and it is now in its first round of mass production. The plan, he said, is to market the device to the chemical industry worldwide. Looking ahead, Overton is already working on the development of the “next generation” of his device, one that will be hand-held or roughly the size of a cell phone. Overton said the new, smaller device under development would not be possible without LSU’s Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices, or CAMD. Indeed, he explained, the facility provided the technology necessary for producing the device’s tiny parts and for testing the devices. For more information on the new equipment, contact Overton at 225-578-8634 or eboveret@lsu.edu. For more on the microFAST GC, visit http://www.microfastgc.com -30- |
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