Improved detection of benzene and TACs.

As part of the enhancements, Ion Science has introduced own brand benzene pre-filter tubes. Specially developed for use with Tiger Select, the highly cost effective tubes offer enhanced performance by demonstrating better resistance to interference gases.

“Ion Science is continuously innovating in order to provide its customers with highly effective products to enhance the quality and safety of their operations,” comments Duncan Johns, Ion Science’s Managing Director. “As an industry-leading supplier of gas detection instrumentation to oil refineries and petrochemical plants, Ion Science utilises its technical capabilities and understanding of customer needs to strengthen worker safety.

“The updated Tiger Select is an excellent example of this and offers advancements that are valuable to safety personnel for ensuring compliance and worker safety.”

Utilising the high output Ion Science 10.0eV lamp configuration, a reading for TACs is seen immediately on start-up in both Basic and Advanced modes.

Where TACs are detected above the regulatory limit, a new Ion Science benzene pre-filter tube can be easily attached to Tiger Select to ensure rapid detection and selective measurement of benzene. A short term exposure limit (STEL) can then be immediately initiated.

This three-step process provides instant TAC readings and minimises tube usage when benzene levels are low.

Benzene is a critical industrial chemical which is commonly found throughout the petrochemical industry. It is extremely hazardous and a recognised human carcinogen. To protect workers, legislation is in place across the world to ensure exposure is kept to a minimum, typically a time weighted average (TWA) of one part per million (ppm).

With such a low exposure limit, benzene concentration alone usually defines the toxicity of vapours in the petrochemical market as a whole. As a result, it is essential that sub ppm benzene concentrations can be measured rapidly in the presence of the hundreds of aromatic and aliphatic compounds encountered throughout the industry.

Ion Science’s new benzene pre-filter tube oxidises aromatics and olefins, and adsorbs heavy components including alkanes. Lighter alkanes that pass through the tube do not respond on the 10.0eV lamp. Only benzene passes through the tube unoxidised and unadsorbed ready to be detected.

Throughout the measurement process, Tiger Select continues to display real-time data, ensuring the final reading represents the full value of actual benzene present*. Benzene concentrations are displayed down to parts per billion (ppb) levels for more accuracy.

The health & safety feature can provide STEL readings after a 15-minute sampling period and calculate an eight-hour TWA for TACs. The instrument can be used in standard operational mode without the use of a benzene pre-filter tube to deliver active indications of VOCs, including benzene at concentrations as low as one ppb benzene equivalent.

The Tiger Select boasts Ion Science’s market-leading MiniPID 2 sensor which incorporates both anti-contamination and Fence Electrode technology for extended operation in difficult working environments.

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