Development of Passive Sampling Regime in Royal Navy Submarine Atmospheres for Retrospective Analysis of Organic Compounds

Sampling and retrospective analysis of contaminant volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in submarine atmospheres is essential to demonstrate compliance with exposure standards, evaluate trends, and determine new compounds introduced into the atmosphere of a submarine. Currently atmospheric VOCs are sampled using Tenax™ sorbent tubes and analysed retrospectively. In order to evaluate the efficacy of the sampling regime, submarine trials were conducted using the Volatile Organics Analyzer (VOA), borrowed from NASA. Using the results from these trials further investigative work was carried out to develop the sampling and retrospective analysis regime including passive samplers.

This paper will detail findings from VOA trials, and the development of a new passive sampling regime utilising various sorption tubes.