High volume sampling trap thermal extraction device
AssigneeThe Government of the United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of Homeland Security
InventorInho Cho
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In an example, a thermal extraction apparatus includes: a housing having a gas inlet and a gas outlet to receive a gas flow through the housing from the gas inlet to the gas outlet, and a side opening to receive a sample collector, having a sample collector adsorbent containing a vapor sample, into a sample collector location; a pump to generate the gas flow; a heater to heat the sample collector adsorbent of the sample collector to a temperature sufficient to release the vapor sample; a thermal desorption (TD) tube connected with the gas outlet of the housing to receive the gas flow downstream of the sample collector and collect the vapor sample released from the sample collector adsorbent of the sample collector; and a cooling member in heat exchange with the TD tube to cool the TD tube.
Claims20
A thermal extraction apparatus comprising:
- a housing having a gas inlet and a gas outlet to receive a gas flow through the housing from the gas inlet to the gas outlet, and a side opening to receive a sample collector into a sample collector location, the sample collector having a sample collector adsorbent containing a vapor sample;
- a pump to generate the gas flow;
- a heater to heat the sample collector adsorbent of the sample collector to a temperature sufficient to release the vapor sample, the heater being disposed in the housing and the heater includes an upstream heating member upstream of the sample collector location for receiving the sample collector and a downstream heating member downstream of the sample collector location;
- a thermal desorption (TD) tube connected with the gas outlet of the housing to receive the gas flow downstream of the sample collector and collect the vapor sample released from the sample collector adsorbent of the sample collector;
- a cooling member in heat exchange with the TD tube to cool the TD tube;
- and
- a temperature control unit to control an upstream temperature of the upstream heating member and a downstream temperature of the downstream heating member to be lower than the upstream temperature.
A thermal extraction apparatus comprising:
- a housing having a gas inlet and a gas outlet to receive a gas flow through the housing from the gas inlet to the gas outlet, and an insertion port to receive a sample collector having a sample collector adsorbent containing a vapor sample;
- a pump to generate the gas flow;
- heating means for heating the sample collector adsorbent of the sample collector to a temperature sufficiently high to facilitate release of the vapor sample from the sample collector adsorbent of the sample collector;
- and
- a thermal desorption (TD) tube connected with the gas outlet of the housing to receive the gas flow downstream of the sample collector and collect the vapor sample released from the sample collector adsorbent of the sample collector;
- the heating means heating an upstream portion of the housing upstream of the insertion port to an upstream temperature and a downstream portion of the housing downstream of the insertion port to a downstream temperature to be lower than the upstream temperature.
A thermal extraction method comprising:
- placing a sample collector, which has a sample collector adsorbent containing a vapor sample, inside a housing via a side opening;
- heating the sample collector adsorbent of the sample collector to a temperature sufficiently high to facilitate release of the vapor sample from the sample collector adsorbent;
- and
- directing a gas flow through a gas inlet of the housing through the sample collector adsorbent of the sample collector through a gas outlet of the housing to a thermal desorption (TD) tube connected with the gas outlet of the housing to receive the gas flow downstream of the sample collector and collect the vapor sample released from the sample collector adsorbent of the sample collector inside the TD tube;
- heating the sample collector adsorbent of the sample collector comprising heating the housing in an upstream region adjacent the sample collector to an upstream temperature and heating the housing in a downstream region adjacent the sample collector to a downstream temperature to be lower than the upstream temperature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.