Measurement SIG Technical Event | 4 February, 2021 | Online

MEASUREMENT SIG TECHNICAL EVENT

Thursday 4 February, 2021

The Measurement Special Interest Group (MSIG) invites you to attend a technical event on:

MABI-a multi-wavelength absorption black carbon
instrument for filters

Presenter:  Professor David Cohen  (ANSTO and CASANZ Fellow)

Black carbon (BC) is a key component of fine particulate PM2.5 air pollution.  It is generated by combustion of fossil fuels such as in emissions from diesel vehicles and from biomass burning such as occurs in major bushfire events. Accurate measurements of BC help provide researchers and regulators with key information on these emission sources so decisions can be taken on how best manage them.

ANSTO have developed a multi-wavelength absorption black carbon instrument (MABI) to quantify the black carbon content on a range of different filter types. MABI uses the transmission of seven different wavelengths between 405nm and 1050 nm to determine the mass absorption coefficient (babs) and the black carbon concentrations on filters This talk will discuss the science behind the operation of the MABI instrument, how if performs these measurements and show how by using absorption measurements at different wavelengths we can distinguished black carbon from diesel vehicle emissions and black carbon for bushfire sources.

A short technical presentation by Thomson Environmental Systems (TES) will follow, detailing the design and manufacture of the multi-wave absorption black carbon instrument (MABI), developed by ANSTO, and produced by TES out of their new headquarters in Kirrawee, Sydney.

Biography:

Professor David Cohen is a Distinguished Research Scientist at ANSTO and a former Leader of the Centre for Accelerator Science (CAS).  A $65M facility with four megavolt accelerators and significant sample preparation facilities and laboratories.  He has been involved with large and significant accelerator systems for over 45 years.

Professor Cohen has over 250 refereed journal publications, over 500 conference and report presentations.  He has presented over 60 invited talks at national and international meeting since 1990. He is recognised nationally and internationally as a leader in the accelerator science field with a strong research background in materials science, environmental studies and life sciences. He has been an international expert in ion beam analysis and accelerator systems for the International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN body base in Vienna, since 1991.

David is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics and the Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand, and an honorary professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Wollongong.  He is also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE).

Professor Cohen has applied accelerator based techniques to the characterisation of fine particle pollution since 1990.  These techniques provided quantitative data on the composition of fine particles as well as fingerprinting natural and anthropogenic sources and their contributions.  He has applied these methods across Australia and throughout Asia to produce unique multi-decal dataset of fine particle air pollution and its sources which are currently being used by environmental protection agencies to manage air pollution.