Continuous emission monitoring the trace Sr from simulant aerosol emission with LIPS

Continuous emission monitoring (CEM) of strontium in aerosols is of great significance for air pollution prevention and industrial facilities emission monitoring. Laser-induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS, also LIBS) is a promising technology for direct and online monitoring aerosols because of the advantages of no sample preparation, rapid analysis, and online detection. An enhanced LIPS setup with high detection sensitivity and short detection cycles is integrated to meet the demand for continuous monitoring of trace element aerosols. The continuous monitoring of strontium in aerosols is introduced with an improved LIPS setup. The setup is calibrated and tested with different concentrations of strontium aerosols generated by aerosol generators. The enhanced LIPS setup can quantify 22 ng/m3 strontium in aerosol within 10 min. Based on experiments, a calibration curve for the strontium aerosol is established and the limit of detection (LOD) of the setup reaches 1.8 ng/m3, which meets the need for continuous monitoring of trace elements. [Display omitted] •Developed an aerosol LIPS system with an enhanced plasma collector for real-time trace element monitoring in aerosols.•Proposed the Conditional Analysis Filtering Method, improving detection sensitivity by nearly 3 orders of magnitude.•Enhanced LIPS achieved 1.8 ng/m3 detection limit for Sr in aerosols, enabling continuous trace element monitoring in emissions.