
Environmental
The sensitive, selective and real-time analysis of SIFT-MS provides simple and continuous monitoring of trace VOCs in ambient air.
Faster measurement of contaminants in air, water and soil
VOCs are important, but invisible, pollutants. Some are highly toxic (including the carcinogens benzene and formaldehyde), some have nuisance value (e.g. producing offensive odors or lacrimation) but all VOCs are contributors to photochemical smog. SIFT-MS has a unique combination of benefits that enable highly selective, sensitive volatiles analysis of air, water, and soil. SIFT-MS experiments can be conducted in real-time or with high throughput, in the field and in the lab.
Environmental applications and use cases
Ambient Monitoring
The SIFT-MS technique provides rapid, high-sensitivity analysis of VOCs and inorganic gases at ambient levels, with no sample preparation and no discrimination against polar, thermally labile and reactive species.
Read MoreAtmospheric Research
SIFT-MS is supporting scientists committed to improving urban air quality, by providing the real-time VOC data necessary for building effective models.
Read MoreMobile Monitoring
SIFT-MS instruments are easily mounted in vans and transported from location to location for convenient on-site analysis or deployment in an air monitoring campaign (obtaining similar data as shown in the figure).
Read MoreOdor Analysis
SIFT-MS is an ideal tool for simply and quantitatively characterizing odor sources in diverse industries and applications.
Read MoreWater and Soil
Simplified, high-throughput analysis of water and soil direct from headspace or after extraction.
Read MoreSyft is your answer in the Environmental industry

Industry issue
Regulators worldwide are imposing tighter and more comprehensive emissions requirements in response to increasing concern about the impact of airborne pollutants. Fenceline emissions have traditionally been monitored through a combination of off-line laboratory techniques, such as GC-MS or HPLC, which lack the time resolution, responsiveness, and comprehensiveness of analysis to provide timely information on such a dynamic and complex matrix.
Competitive benefit
SIFT-MS is a unique monitoring tool with the ability to measure volatile organic compounds (including sulfides, aldehydes and aromatics) and inorganic compounds (including NOx, SOx and H2S) along with inorganic acid gases (including HCl and HF) directly in a single analysis without sample preparation.
Industry impact
Real-time pollutant monitoring ensures that the root cause of air quality perturbations can be rapidly identified and addressed, mitigating the need for regulatory fines and environmental remediation activities.Environmental resources





Sensory Analysis of Wastewater Odor with SIFT-MS

Enhanced Environmental Monitoring 1: Fenceline and Odor Applications

Direct MS Simplifies Analysis of Challenging Compounds
Routine Analysis 4: Direct MS Simplifies Analysis of Challenging Compounds


Real-Time, Comprehensive Air Quality Monitoring Using Direct MS

High-Throughput Analysis of Volatiles in Air, Polymers, Water and Soil, with SIFT-MS

Volatile Compound Analysis: Automated SIFT-MS

Routine Analysis 2: Routine Lab Procedures Are Easy to Apply to Direct MS

Rapid Analysis of BTEX in Water using Automated SIFT-MS
Selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) combined with GERSTEL automation greatly simplifies analysis of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and the xylenes (BTEX) in water. This application note demonstrates the linearity, repeatability and sensitivity achievable with automated SIFT-MS. Automated static headspace (SH)-SIFT-MS provides sample throughputs at least three-fold higher than traditional purge-and-trap-gas chromatography methods.


Optimize Environmental Monitoring Using Direct Mass Spectrometry

Process and Specialty Gas Analysis Applications of Direct MS

Spatial and Temporal Mapping of Environmental Volatile Pollutants: Mobile SIFT-MS

Syft App Talks #21. SIFT-MS BTEX Analysis Following Methanolic Extraction of Soil

Syft App Talks #18. Simultaneous Analysis of Multiple Classes of Organic Compounds using SIFT-MS

Online Demonstration - Continuous Monitoring with Real-Time Notifications from the Cloud

Syft Application Talks 9: Mobile Measurements Using SIFT-MS

Syft Application Talks 8: From the Shower Room, to Human Breath, to Asian Megacities: A SIFT-MS Measurement Journey

Syft Application Talks 7: Emerging Requirements for VOC Analysis in Support of Environmental Regulation

Part 1: Environmental Monitoring

Enhanced Environmental Monitoring 3: Ambient Monitoring and Atmospheric Research

Enhanced Environmental Monitoring 2: Laboratory Applications
A Sensory Expert Shares His Experience with SIFT-MS
We asked Mike McGinley, President, St. Croix Sensory, Inc. about his experience using SIFT-MS. Hear what he had to say about the speed of analysis and flexibility inherent to Syft's product solutions.
High Throughput Screening of Recycled HDPE Pellets Using Untargeted Headspace-SIFT-MS-Analysis
Automated headspace-SIFT-MS analysis can classify pelleted recycled HDPE at throughputs over 230 samples per day, offering great potential for rapid screening of recycled packaging materials.

Real-time Ethylene Oxide and Fence Line Monitoring Using SIFT-MS
Selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) is a revolutionary direct mass spectrometric technology for continuous, sensitive, selective, and robust analysis of diverse chemical species in air. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) — such as benzene, ammonia, and formaldehyde — and inorganic gases such as sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide are detected simultaneously and continuously in real time. Watch the webinar to discover why SIFT-MS is well suited to air quality monitoring both in a mobile deployment scenario and for fence line monitoring.
Syft Tracer: The Next Generation of Volatile Impurities Analysis for Enhanced Workflows
This app note introduces the next generation of SIFT-MS, Syft TracerTM, which launched at Pittcon 2023. It revolutionizes volatile impurities analysis workflows through unparalleled speed, performance stability, and reproducibility. Learn about how this innovation to real-time trace gas detection outpaces chromatography-based methods in the analysis of challenging analytes such as formaldehyde in a PEG excipient.
Recent developments and applications of selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT‐MS)
SIFT‐MS is now recognized as the most versatile analytical technique for the identification and quantification of trace gases down to the parts‐per‐trillion by volume, pptv, range. This statement is supported by the wide reach of its applications, from real‐time analysis, obviating sample collection of very humid exhaled breath, to its adoption in industrial scenarios for air quality monitoring. This review touches on the recent extensions to the underpinning ion chemistry kinetics library and the alternative challenge of using nitrogen carrier gas instead of helium.
SIFT-MS: Quantifying the Volatiles You Smell . . . and the Toxics You Don’t
SIFT-MS has been widely applied to quantitative analysis of a broad range of VOCs in applications from food products to workplace safety to environmental monitoring, and most recently to pharmaceutical testing. This review surveys the applications of SIFT-MS in odor analysis and in workplace, environmental and consumer protection, with a particular focus on the complementarity of this real-time mass spectrometry analyzer to sensor technology and conventional laboratory techniques—in particular, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS).

The Latest Innovation of Real-Time, High-Throughput Volatile Impurities Analysis by SIFT-MS
Join us for this webinar to learn about Syft Tracer, the latest advancement of real-time, trace gas analysis by SIFT-MS which launched at Pittcon 2023. Hear how the recent product innovations unlock analytical bottlenecks and enable faster decisions to be made in critical process steps.
Syft Tracer Brochure
Syft TracerTM is the latest advancement in real-time, direct injection mass spectrometry (MS) built to solve the most difficult analytical challenges faced within a variety of industries and applications. This advancement to SIFT-MS delivers trace-level detection sensitivity, unparalleled performance stability, superior selectivity, and highly reproducible, quantitative data. Syft Tracer is optimized for high-throughput environments where continuous operation is the standard. Never miss a product or environmental contamination event again.
Revolutionary Productivity For Volatile Residue and Impurity Analysis
This application note describes a scenario in which Syft TracerTM replaces five chromatography systems and still has significant available sample capacity. SIFT-MS provides rapid, chromatography-free analysis that revolutionizes multiple workflows.
High-Throughput Analysis of Volatile Compounds in Air, Water, and Soil Using SIFT-MS
This study demonstrates high-throughput analysis of BTEX compounds from several matrices (air, water and soil). Detection limits in the single-digit part-per-billion concentration range (by volume) are readily achievable within seconds using SIFT-MS, because sample analysis is achieved without chromatography, pre-concentration, or drying. We also present a calibration approach that enables speciation of ethylbenzene from the xylenes in real time.
Application Brief: Revolutionary Workflows for Volatile Impurities Analysis
This application brief summarizes a scenario relevant to contract research organization (CRO) and contract drug manufacturing organization (CDMO) laboratories where multiple volatile impurity methods need to be conducted in short runs. Five analyses are considered that can be handled by one Syft Tracer but require multiple legacy, chromatography instruments. For these analyses, SIFT-MS reports the first quantitative results 2- to 12-fold faster, and has sample throughputs 3- to 17-fold higher than the conventional procedures.
Wastewater Odor Analysis by SIFT-MS
In this application note, the performance of SIFT-MS is evaluated for analysis of odors from diverse sources at a modern wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). SIFT-MS provides comprehensive, quantitative profiling of odor sources and can identify operational abnormalities. In particular, the results presented demonstrate that methyl mercaptan is almost always a more significant odorant at this WWTP than hydrogen sulfide and confirm that the relative abundances of these odorants vary significantly.
Headspace-SIFT-MS: Flexibility that Revolutionizes Workflows for Diverse Samples
The characteristic flexibility, stability, high throughput, and fast time to data of the Syft Tracer next-gen SIFT-MS instrument apply across multiple headspace approaches for diverse matrices. This application note briefly summarizes the use of (1) dissolution, (2) multiple headspace extraction (MHE), and (3) the method of standard additions, then provides a guide for identifying the appropriate headspace approach for various matrices.
Rapid Sensory Analysis of Paper Packaging Using SIFT-MS
This application note demonstrates that SIFT-MS effectively classifies paper samples by odor intensity rating and odor descriptor, in addition to distinguishing paper composition and mill of origin. When integrated with autosamplers, SIFT-MS provides throughputs of over 220 samples per day, supporting significantly enhanced quality assurance compared to conventional human sensory panels and gas chromatography-based analyses.
Revolutionizing Volatile Impurities Analysis Through Next Gen SIFT-MS
This E-book describes how next gen SIFT-MS enables rapid, continuous screening of toxic volatile impurities in pharmaceutical and consumer products. This advancement to SIFT-MS delivers trace-level detection sensitivity, unparalleled performance stability, superior selectivity, and highly reproducible, quantitative data. Never miss a contamination event again.