The Environmental Engineering department at Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology is developing an undergraduate laboratory where students acquire experience in full-scale projects which merge design, experimental preparation, field work, laboratory work, group participation, and data analysis. The Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6) Tracer Laboratory improves the students' understanding of air pollution while providing them with hands-on project experience. The equipment in the SF6 Laboratory consists of six subsystems: a system for releasing SF6 gas at a controlled, metered rate; samplers for collecting time-integrated air samples downwind of the source; an SF6 analyzer for continuously monitoring tracer concentrations and for analyzing the time-integrated air samples; a calibration system; a meteorological system for measuring the winds and the ambient temperature during field studies; and a portable data acquisition system for collecting and processing the meteorological and concentration data. The equipment is intended for full-scale experimentation in areas which are critical to environmental engineering. As examples, in the SF6 Laboratory students can study the transport and diffusion of air contaminants, develop and apply laboratory skills in a field setting, study building ventilation requirements, and test effectiveness of existing ventilation systems.
