Methods to detect and analyse volatile organic carbons using low cost real-time sensors
Date
2019
Authors
Gupta, Vatsal, author
Carlson, Kenneth, advisor
Carter, Ellison, committee member
Ham, Jay, committee member
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Abstract
VOCs are ubiquitous and can be found not only as vapors in the air but also as soil gas and dissolved in ground water. Vapor intrusion occurs when volatile organic compounds from contaminated soil or groundwater migrate upwards toward the ground surface and into overlying buildings or surfaces through gaps and cracks in the ground. In this thesis I have detailed several statistical analysis techniques and used these techniques on data that I obtained from active real-time soil gas and ground water quality monitoring sensors placed around an abandoned oil and gas well in Longmont, Colorado, to see if there were VOCs still being released from the site. The main goal of this study was to develop a more precise setup for real-time VOC release monitoring and help regulate fracking sites more efficiently and to analyze the data collected faster and more accurately. Another goal of this study was to bridge the gap between laboratory sampling and real-time on-site testing. From the results, we were able to analyze the movement of the contaminant plume using real time sensing and were also able to identify most of the constituents of the contaminants using in-situ data according to EPA method 18.
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Subject
fracking
soil gas sensors
volatile organic carbon
oil and gas
data analysis
trend analysis