Case Study: Particle Size Distribution of Stack Samples

THE PROBLEM: How do you provide particle size information for a source that is so clean you cannot get enough sample to weigh? Or you have already collected a sample and now particle size information is required? Perhaps you need customized particle size distribution information for an engineering study?

THE ANALYSIS: Automated scanning electron microscopy can provide particle size and shape analysis for thousands of individual particles in a stack sample, providing statistically robust particle size information for very lightly loaded samples, for other stack samples collected on filters.

THE IMAGE: The image below shows a dispersion of stack particles on a filter.

THE OUTCOME: The table below gives the PM2.5 and PM10 results for a set of Method 5 samples from a source too clean for gravimetric based particle size distribution measurements to be applied. The source operator was able to satisfy testing requirements for these very lightly loaded samples.