The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) debuted an upgraded version of its environmental survey vehicle and its high-altitude air sampling technology on the outlying islands of Penghu County.
EPA Environmental Analysis Laboratory Acting Director Yen Chun-lan (顏春蘭) said the vehicle, donated by Delta Electronics last year, uses a soft chemical ionization proton transfer reaction time-of-flight spectrometer, which can monitor more than 300 gaseous pollutants that have the ability to bind with oxonium ions using.
The pollutants include volatile organic compounds, inorganic gases and a range of odorous substances, which make up the majority of gaseous pollutants, she said.
Photo: Sean Lin, Taipei Times Photo: Sean Lin, Taipei Times Sean Lin, Taipei Times
The vehicle also boasts quick sample analysis — capable of yielding results in less than 10 minutes — and can detect pollutants with concentrations as low as 0.01 parts per billion, Yen said.
The technology represents a major improvement on first-generation environmental survey vehicles, which can analyze about 56 pollutants and require up to one hour to produce results, she said.
The faster analysis would also speed up emergency response times to situations such as gas leaks, she said.
Other equipment on the vehicle includes a MS200 portable spectrometer and a Fourier transform infrared spectroscope (FTIR). Although both devices have a lower resolution than the chemical spectrometer, they can operate without an external power supply and can be used to detect escaping gases and pollutants in hard-to-reach areas, she said.
The FTIR uses an infrared spectrometer that shows the intensity of wavelengths projected by leaked gases, thereby identifying them, Yen said.
The equipment cost more than NT$15 million (US$479,202), she added.
The EPA deployed the vehicle close to the site of the recently Penghu Fireworks Festival in Magong City (馬公) to detect any surges in air pollutants caused by fireworks.
The results, produced between April 20 — the start of the festival — and June 15, showed margin increases in particulates under 10 micrometers, particulates under 2.5 micrometers and nitros oxide, which the EPA previously said were associated with fireworks.
The agency said that the phenomenon might be due to the high altitude at which fireworks explode, as environmental survey vehicles are usually monitor air quality near the ground.
The vehicle is to do an environmental surveillance mission at several industrial complexes and science parks, including Formosa Plastics Group’s naphtha cracker in Yunlin County, the Central Taiwan Science Park and Hsinchu Science Park, before being deployed in Kaohsiung, one of the municipalities most affected by air pollution, the EPA said.
Also debuted last month, the EPA’s high-altitude sampling technology, which uses a sampler attached to a balloon that can reach alttitudes of 700m to 1,000m to collect bacteria carried by air streams.
Laboratory researcher Yen Jung-hua (顏榮華) said that with the help of a high-speed motor, bacteria are sucked in by the sampler before falling on a petri dish where they are cultivated.
After bacterial colonies are formed, researchers conduct DNA sequencing to identify them, he said.
Comparing the results obtained in Penghu last month with others produced in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) between March and April 2013, when northeast monsoons blew across the nation, Yen said that there is no noticeable difference in the types of bacteria identified, and results from both tests showed bacteria commonly found in dirt and deserts.
So far, the laboratory has not detected any health risks associated with these types of bacteria, but would carry out more detailed analysis on days when northeast winds are strong to ascertain whether elevated concentrations of bacteria would affect people’s health, he said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
RSS