The Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance (TEOM) sampler is an EPA
approved Federal Equivalent Method Sampler for measuring PM10 concentrations. The
Center for Agricultural Air Quality Engineering and Science (CAAQES) owns two
Rupprecht and Patashnick (R&P) Series1400a monitors. The R&P Series 1400a monitor
uses the TEOM method to measure particulate matter (PM) concentrations and was
approved by EPA in 1990 as an automated equivalent method PM10 sampler. Since its
approval, many state air pollution regulatory agencies (SAPRAs) have located R&P
Series 1400a monitors at community-oriented monitoring sites. Some SAPRAs have
even located TEOM samplers at the property line of major sources to determine if the
source is meeting its permit requirements for PMc emissions. This thesis presents the
results of PM10 and TSP concentrations measured with TEOM and low-volume
gravimetric samplers at two Texas cattle feedlots. The purpose of this research was to
compare the performance of the R&P Series 1400a monitor to the low-volume
gravimetric sampler when sampling PM from a feedlot. Furthermore, this research was conducted to avoid the inappropriate regulation of cattle feedlots that may occur in the
future as a consequence of the TEOM sampler being used to measure PMc emissions.
The results of this research demonstrate that relationship between the R&P Series
1400a monitor and the low-volume gravimetric sampler is linear. In general, it was
observed that the TEOM sampler measured higher PM10 and TSP concentrations than
the low-volume gravimetric sampler when sampling downwind from a cattle feedlot.
The opposite results were observed when sampling was conducted upwind from the
feedlot. The collected data demonstrates that the concentration difference between the
two sampling methods is linearly dependent with the concentration intensity for the
upwind sampling locations. This trend was shown to be statistically significant. Another
linear relationship was observed between the concentration difference and the particle
size (mass median diameter and geometric standard deviation) of the sampled dust.
Although this trend was not statistically significant, it is believed that additional
downwind concentration measurements would validate this relationship.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2634 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Skloss, Stewart James |
| Contributors | Parnell, Jr., Calvin B. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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