September 2018 | www.epa.gov/research A REPORT ON USING FORWARD LOOKING INFRARED RADIATION (FLIR) TECHNOLOGY AS AN EFFECTIVE PCE/TCE SCREENING TOOL FOR VAPOR INTRUSION SAMPLING photo U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development National Risk Management Research Laboratory Land and Materials Management Division Remediation and Technology Evaluation Branch and U.S. EPA Region 6 Superfund Division i This page intentionally left blank. ii September 2018 A Report on Using Forward Looking Infrared Radiation (FLIR) Technology as an Effective PCE/TCE Screening Tool for Vapor Intrusion Sampling Land and Materials Management Division National Risk Management Research Laboratory Cincinnati, OH, 45268 and Superfund Division U.S. EPA Region 6 Dallas, TX, 75202 iii Authors Primary Authors David Eppler US Environmental Protection Agency Superfund Division 1445 Ross Ave. Dallas, TX 75202 David Ferguson US Environmental Protection Agency Land and Materials Management Division National Risk Management Research Laboratory 26 W. Martin Luther King Dr. Cincinnati, OH 45268 Michael Torres US Environmental Protection Agency Superfund Division 1445 Ross Ave. Dallas, TX 75202 Daniel Young US Environmental Protection Agency Land and Materials Management Division National Risk Management Research Laboratory 26 W. Martin Luther King Dr. Cincinnati, OH 45268 Raghuraman Venkatapathy Pegasus Technical Services, Inc. 46 E. Hollister Street Cincinnati, OH 45219 iv Notice/Disclaimer Statement This report is a review of available methods for using Forward Looking Infrared Radiation (FLIR) technology as an effective PCE/TCE screening tool for vapor intrusion sampling. The inclusion of or affirmative statements regarding any method, data, or model included in this review does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The quality of the methods, data, or models has not been evaluated by the U.S. EPA for any specific application. Upon review, approval does not signify the contents reflect the views of the U.S. EPA, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. v Foreword The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) is charged by Congress with protecting the Nation's land, air, and surface water and groundwater resources. Under a mandate of national environmental laws, the US EPA strives to formulate and implement actions leading to a compatible balance between human activities and the ability of natural systems to support and nurture life. To meet this mandate, US EPA's research program is providing data and technical support for solving environmental problems today and building a science knowledge base necessary to manage our ecological/environmental resources wisely, understand how pollutants affect our health, and prevent or reduce public health and environmental threats/risks in the future. The Superfund Division within US EPA Region 6 implements and enforces the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act, and the Oil Pollution Act and the Brownfields program. EPA’s Superfund program is responsible for cleaning up some of the nation’s most contaminated land and responding to environmental emergencies, oil spills and natural disasters. To protect public health and the environment, the Superfund program focuses on making a visible and lasting difference in communities, ensuring that people can live and work in healthy, vibrant places. EPA risk managers provide the technical risk assessments the Superfund program uses to determine whether remediation is required for a Superfund site. EPA Region 6 provides the risk management assessments to clean up contaminated sites located in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and 66 Tribes. The National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) within the Office of Research and Development (ORD) is the Agency's center for investigation of technological and management approaches for preventing and reducing risks from pollution that threaten human health and the environment. The focus of the Laboratory's research program is on methods and their cost-effectiveness for prevention and control of pollution to air, land, water, and subsurface resources; protection of water quality in public water systems; remediation of contaminated sites, sediments, and ground water; prevention and control of indoor air pollution; and restoration of ecosystems. NRMRL collaborates with both public and private sector partners to foster technologies that reduce the cost of compliance and to anticipate emerging problems. NRMRL's research provides solutions to environmental problems by: 1) developing and promoting technologies that protect and improve the environment; 2) advancing scientific and engineering information to support regulatory and policy decisions; and 3) providing the technical support and information transfer to ensure implementation of environmental regulations and strategies at the national, state, and community levels. This report is a summary of the experiments conducted in support of using FLIR technology as a screening tool for detecting tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE) vapor intrusion into indoor or outdoor settings. Research to support this effort was conducted at the EPA Region 6 Addison Facility in Texas. Development of this project arose through close collaboration of ORD and EPA Region 6. Findings in this report represent an evaluation of the FLIR GF-306 and FLIR GF-320 VOC camera systems to detect PCE, TCE and other gases of interest under various scenarios, including flow through systems that simulate a vapor intrusion leak, and static systems that mimic confined spaces. Cynthia Sonich-Mullin, Director Carl E. Edlund, P.E., Director National Risk Management Research Laboratory Superfund Division, US EPA, Region 6 vi Table of Contents Authors ..................................................................................................................................................... iv Notice/Disclaimer Statement .................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... vii Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................ xv Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................. xvii 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 7 2. BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................... 9 3. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH .................................................................................................... 14 3.1 Materials ................................................................................................................................ 14 3.1.1 Chemicals Used .................................................................................................................... 14 3.1.2 Camera Systems .................................................................................................................... 14 3.2 Methods ................................................................................................................................. 18 3.2.1 Leak Detection Experiments ................................................................................................. 18 3.3 Databases ............................................................................................................................... 21 3.3.1 NIST WebBook .................................................................................................................... 21 3.3.2 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory IR Database ........................................................... 22 3.3.3 Response Factor (RF) Calculator .......................................................................................... 22 4. QUALITY ASSURANCE/QUALITY CONTROL ........................................................................ 25 5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ...................................................................................................... 26 5.1 Camera Performance Check .................................................................................................. 26 5.2 PCE and TCE Leak Detection ............................................................................................... 32 5.3 Determination of Gas Detection Capabilities for each Camera System ............................... 35 5.4 PCE and TCE Gas Detection Capabilities for each Camera System .................................... 37 5.5 Determination of Gas Leak Detection Limits ....................................................................... 40 5.5.1 Determination of Detection Limits using the RF Calculator ................................................ 41 5.5.2 Estimation of Detection Limits using IR Spectra ................................................................. 43