Martin Sklorz

Particle emissions from a marine engine: chemical composition and aromatic emission profiles under various operating conditions.

The chemical composition of particulate matter (PM) emissions from a medium-speed four-stroke marine engine, operated on both heavy fuel oil (HFO) and distillate fuel (DF), was studied under various operating conditions. PM emission factors for organic matter, elemental carbon (soot), inorganic species and a variety of organic compounds were determined. In addition, the molecular composition of aromatic organic matter was analyzed using a novel coupling of a thermal-optical carbon analyzer with a resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) mass spectrometer. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were predominantly present in an alkylated form, and the composition of the aromatic organic matter in emissions clearly resembled that of fuel. The emissions of species known to be hazardous to health (PAH, Oxy-PAH, N-PAH, transition metals) were significantly higher from HFO than from DF operation, at all engine loads. In contrast, DF usage generated higher elemental carbon emissions than HFO at typical load points (50% and 75%) for marine operation. Thus, according to this study, the sulfur emission regulations that force the usage of low-sulfur distillate fuels will also substantially decrease the emissions of currently unregulated hazardous species. However, the emissions of soot may even increase if the fuel injection system is optimized for HFO operation.

Volatile organic compounds produced by the phytopathogenic bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria 85-10

Summary Xanthomonas campestris is a phytopathogenic bacterium and causes many diseases of agricultural relevance. Volatiles were shown to be important in inter- and intraorganismic attraction and defense reactions. Recently it became apparent that also bacteria emit a plethora of volatiles, which influence other organisms such as invertebrates, plants and fungi. As a first step to study volatile-based bacterial–plant interactions, the emission profile of Xanthomonas c. pv. vesicatoria 85-10 was determined by using GC/MS and PTR–MS techniques. More than 50 compounds were emitted by this species, the majority comprising ketones and methylketones. The structure of the dominant compound, 10-methylundecan-2-one, was assigned on the basis of its analytical data, obtained by GC/MS and verified by comparison of these data with those of a synthetic reference sample. Application of commercially available decan-2-one, undecan-2-one, dodecan-2-one, and the newly synthesized 10-methylundecan-2-one in bi-partite Petri dish bioassays revealed growth promotions in low quantities (0.01 to 10 μmol), whereas decan-2-one at 100 μmol caused growth inhibitions of the fungus Rhizoctonia solani. Volatile emission profiles of the bacteria were different for growth on media (nutrient broth) with or without glucose.

Particulate Matter from Both Heavy Fuel Oil and Diesel Fuel Shipping Emissions Show Strong Biological Effects on Human Lung Cells at Realistic and Comparable In Vitro Exposure Conditions

Background Ship engine emissions are important with regard to lung and cardiovascular diseases especially in coastal regions worldwide. Known cellular responses to combustion particles include oxidative stress and inflammatory signalling. Objectives To provide a molecular link between the chemical and physical characteristics of ship emission particles and the cellular responses they elicit and to identify potentially harmful fractions in shipping emission aerosols. Methods Through an air-liquid interface exposure system, we exposed human lung cells under realistic in vitro conditions to exhaust fumes from a ship engine running on either common heavy fuel oil (HFO) or cleaner-burning diesel fuel (DF). Advanced chemical analyses of the exhaust aerosols were combined with transcriptional, proteomic and metabolomic profiling including isotope labelling methods to characterise the lung cell responses. Results The HFO emissions contained high concentrations of toxic compounds such as metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, and were higher in particle mass. These compounds were lower in DF emissions, which in turn had higher concentrations of elemental carbon (“soot”). Common cellular reactions included cellular stress responses and endocytosis. Reactions to HFO emissions were dominated by oxidative stress and inflammatory responses, whereas DF emissions induced generally a broader biological response than HFO emissions and affected essential cellular pathways such as energy metabolism, protein synthesis, and chromatin modification. Conclusions Despite a lower content of known toxic compounds, combustion particles from the clean shipping fuel DF influenced several essential pathways of lung cell metabolism more strongly than particles from the unrefined fuel HFO. This might be attributable to a higher soot content in DF. Thus the role of diesel soot, which is a known carcinogen in acute air pollution-induced health effects should be further investigated. For the use of HFO and DF we recommend a reduction of carbonaceous soot in the ship emissions by implementation of filtration devices.

Thermal Desorption−Multiphoton Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry of Individual Aerosol Particles: A Simplified Approach for Online Single-Particle Analysis of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Their Derivatives

Online single-particle (SP) laser mass spectrometry (MS) is an important tool for fundamental and applied aerosol research. Usually laser desorption/ionization (LDI) is applied for ablation and ionization of atoms and molecular fragments from the nanometer- or micrometer-sized air-borne particles and time-of-flight analysers (TOFMS) are used for mass-selective detection of mainly inorganic analytes. The detection of molecular organic compounds is solely possible under very special experimental conditions and extremely dependent on the particle matrix and thus limited to special applications. Very recently it was shown that by implementation of a two-step laser desorption (LD) resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) postionization approach the single-particulate molecular signature of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and their derivatives can be recorded (LD-REMPI-SP-TOFMS). By this, particles from different sources could be differentiated via the patterns of specific molecular source tracers such as retene for soft wood combustion or larger PAH as indicator for gasoline car emissions. One drawback of the LD-REMPI-SP-TOFMS method in particular for field applications is, however, the necessity of operation and adjustment of two lasers. In this paper the successful implementation of a thermal desorption step in single-particle mass spectrometry is described (TD-REMPI-SP-TOFMS). After size determination by particle velocimetry, individual particles are thermally desorbed on a heated surface in the ion source of the TOFMS. Desorbed molecules are ionized subsequently by REMPI, which addresses selectively PAH and molecular trace indicators. The TD-REMPI-SP-TOFMS concept was tested with reference particles and applied for automotive exhaust and ambient monitoring. The comparison of the results with the ones obtained by the two-laser approach (LD-REMPI-SP-TOFMS) indicates that the patented TD-REMPI-SP-TOFMS technology presented here is nearly equally well suited for studying organic source tracers in ambient aerosols and aerosol emissions. The increased ruggedness and simplicity of the new approach, however, may favor its application for field measurements in aerosol science and technology.

Thermogravimetry coupled to single photon ionization quadrupole mass spectrometry: a tool to investigate the chemical signature of thermal decomposition of polymeric materials.

Mass spectrometry (MS) is an established analytical technique to analyze evolved gas in thermogravimetry (TG). In this study, for the first time a novel SPI-MS technique using an electron beam pumped VUV excimer lamp as photon source (lambda = 126 nm) was employed in conjunction with thermogravimetry. The coupling was achieved with an improved heated interface and adjacent transfer capillary between TG and ion source of a quadrupole mass spectrometer. The feasibility of this approach was proven by investigating semivolatile substances such as long-chain alkanes (heptadecane C17H36), polymers, e.g., polystyrene, polycarbonate, and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, polymer mixtures and blends. Mass spectra with almost no fragmentation were obtained, and quantification of selected substances could be achieved. Polymer mixtures could be distinguished by their SPI mass spectra, and the effect of premixing of polymers has been accessed. Its unique attributes render the TA-SPI-MS method a promising new tool for quantitative and qualitative evaluation of complex organic thermal degradation products.

Online Laser Desorption-Multiphoton Postionization Mass Spectrometry of Individual Aerosol Particles : Molecular Source Indicators for Particles Emitted from Different Traffic-Related and Wood Combustion Sources

Direct inlet aerosol mass spectrometry plays an increasingly important role in applied and fundamental aerosol and nanoparticle research. Laser desorption/ionization (LDI) based techniques for single particle time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LDI-SP-TOFMS) are a promising approach in the chemical analysis of single aerosol particles, especially for the detection of inorganic species and distinction of particle classes. However, until now the detection of molecular organic compounds on a single particle basis has been difficult due to the high laser power densities which are required for the LDI process as well as due to the inherent matrix effects associated with this ionization technique. By the application of a two-step approach, where an IR desorption laser pulse is applied to perform a gentle desorption of organic material from the single particle surface and a second UV-laser performs the soft ionization of the desorbed species, this drawback of laser based single particles mass spectrometry can be overcome. The postionization of the desorbed molecules has been accomplished in this work by resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) using a KrF excimer laser (248 nm). REMPI allows an almost fragmentation free trace analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their derivatives from individual single particles (laser desorption-REMPI postionization-single particle-time-of-flight mass spectrometry or LD-REMPI-SP-TOFMS). Crucial system parameters of the home-built aerosol mass spectrometer such as the power densities and the relative timing of both lasers were optimized with respect to the detectability of particle source specific organic signatures using well characterized standard particles. In a second step, the LD-REMPI-SP-TOFMS system was applied to analyze different real world aerosols (spruce wood combustion, gasoline car exhaust, beech wood combustion, and diesel car exhaust). It was possible to distinguish the particles from different sources by their molecular signature. Finally, exemplary ambient aerosol measurements have been carried out, which demonstrate the potential of the method for investigating urban aerosol and making contributions to source attribution studies.

Online characterization of regulated and unregulated gaseous and particulate exhaust emissions from two-stroke mopeds: a chemometric approach.

Two-stroke mopeds are a popular and convenient mean of transport in particular in the highly populated cities. These vehicles can emit potentially toxic gaseous and aerosol pollutants due to their engine technology. The legislative measurements of moped emissions are based on offline methods; however, the online characterization of gas and particulate phases offers great possibilities to understand aerosol formation mechanism and to adapt future emission standards. The purpose of this work was to study the emission behavior of two mopeds complying with different European emission standards (EURO-1 and EURO-2). A sophisticated set of online analyzers was applied to simultaneously monitor the gas phase and particulate phase of exhaust on a real time basis. The gaseous emission was analyzed with a high resolution Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR; nitrogen species) and a resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer (REMPI-ToF-MS; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: PAH), whereas the particulate phase was chemically characterized by a high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS; organic, nitrate and chloride aerosol) and a multiangle absorption photometer (MAAP; black carbon). The physical characterization of the aerosol was carried out with a condensation particle counter (CPC; particle number concentration) and a fast mobility particle sizer (FMPS; size distribution in real time). In order to extract underlying correlation between gas and solid emissions, principal component analysis was applied to the comprehensive online dataset. Multivariate analysis highlighted the considerable effect of the exhaust temperature on the particles and heavy PAH emissions. The results showed that the after-treatment used to comply with the latest EURO-2 emission standard may be responsible for the production of more potentially harmful particles compared to the EURO-1 moped emissions.

Trace detection of organic compounds in complex sample matrixes by single photon ionization ion trap mass spectrometry: real-time detection of security-relevant compounds and online analysis of the coffee-roasting process.

An in-house-built ion trap mass spectrometer combined with a soft ionization source has been set up and tested. As ionization source, an electron beam pumped vacuum UV (VUV) excimer lamp (EBEL) was used for single-photon ionization. It was shown that soft ionization allows the reduction of fragmentation of the target analytes and the suppression of most matrix components. Therefore, the combination of photon ionization with the tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) capability of an ion trap yields a powerful tool for molecular ion peak detection and identification of organic trace compounds in complex matrixes. This setup was successfully tested for two different applications. The first one is the detection of security-relevant substances like explosives, narcotics, and chemical warfare agents. One test substance from each of these groups was chosen and detected successfully with single photon ionization ion trap mass spectrometry (SPI-ITMS) MS/MS measurements. Additionally, first tests were performed, demonstrating that this method is not influenced by matrix compounds. The second field of application is the detection of process gases. Here, exhaust gas from coffee roasting was analyzed in real time, and some of its compounds were identified using MS/MS studies.

Metabolic monitoring and assessment of anaerobic threshold by means of breath biomarkers

Volatile breath constituents such as acetone and ammonia have been linked to dextrose, fat, and protein metabolism. Non-invasive breath analysis, therefore, may be used for metabolic monitoring, identification of fuel sources actually used for energy production and determination of the anaerobic threshold (AT). This study was intended to assess correlations between exhaled volatile organic compound (VOC) concentrations, metabolism, and physiological parameters. In addition, we tried to find out whether AT could be determined by means of non-invasive analysis of VOCs in breath. Exhaled concentrations of acetone, ammonia, and isoprene were determined in 21 healthy volunteers under controlled ergometric exercise by means of continuous real time Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometry (PTR-MS). In parallel, spiro-ergometric parameters (