Quality control for sampling of PCDD/PCDF emissions from open combustion sources

•Polyurethane foam sorbents capture PCDD/PCDF with less than 1% transfer loss.•High sampling flow rates and long durations result in minimal PCDD/PCDF migration.•Higher sampling temperatures result in loss of PUF-bound PCDD/PCDF.•Below 70 °C minimal loss of TEF-weighted congeners occur.•Loss of congeners is consistent with vapor pressure models.

Both long duration (>6 h) and high temperature (up to 139 °C) sampling efforts were conducted using ambient air sampling methods to determine if either high volume throughput or higher than ambient air sampling temperatures resulted in loss of target polychlorinated dibenzodioxins/dibenzofurans (PCDDs/PCDFs) from a polyurethane foam (PUF) sorbent. Emissions from open burning of simulated military forward operating base waste were sampled using EPA Method TO-9A for 185 min duration using a filter/PUF/PUF in series combination. After a 54 m3 sample was collected, the sampler was removed from the combustion source and the second PUF was replaced with a fresh, clean PUF. An additional 6 h of ambient air sampling (171 m3) was conducted and the second PUF was analyzed to determine if the PCDD/PCDF transferred from the filter and the first PUF. Less than 4.4% of the initial PCDD/PCDF was lost to the second PUF. To assess the potential for blow off of PCDD/PCDF analytes during open air sampling, the mobility of spiked mono- to hepta-PCDD/PCDF standards across a PUF sorbent was evaluated from ambient air temperatures to 145 °C with total volumes between 600 L and 2400 L. Lower molecular weight compounds and higher flow amounts increased release of the spiked standards consistent with vapor pressure values. At 600 L total sampled volume, the release temperature for 1% of the tetra-CDD (the lowest chlorinated homologue with a toxic compound) was 87 °C; increasing the volume fourfold reduced this temperature to 73 °C.