Applications of FTNIR spectroscopy to process monitoring

For years, near infrared spectroscopy has been aggressively promoted and successfully used as a quantitative tool for accurately measuring parameters of remarkably varied materials. Using sophisticated statistical software, the instruments extract correlations between a measured absorbance signal in the spectrum and the property or concentration of interest. From food products to gasoline octane, NIR has been demonstrated to perform well, but nagging reliability and calibration issues persist. Using Fourier Transform techniques in the NIR largely eliminates vexing problems the dispersive units suffer. FT-NIR analyzers offer the same sampling and software capability, but add reliability and stability to the measurement. This paper details several applications of process FT-NIR to complex quantitative analyses in industry and describes recent improvements in fiber optic sampling tools which have further advanced the role of FT-NIR for on-line analyses.