Environmental monitoring with Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy offers an effective method for the identification of hazardous gas pollutants. Infrared spectroscopy can reveal the spectral signatures of a pollutant when there is a temperature difference between the pollutant and the background radiation, resulting in the emission or absorption by the pollutant. Appropriate signal processing techniques enable real-time detection and can neglect the need for background radiation references. An algorithm has been developed for the detection of gaseous pollutants with single- or multiple-peak spectra. The algorithm has been successfully used for the detection of methanol with single-peak spectral signature, and ammonia as the representative of multiple-peak spectral signature pollutants.