This is the third in our Troubleshooting series for VOC Analysis.
Part three will discuss elusion issues and moisture control for VOC analysis.
Tags: VOC, Teledyne Tekmar, Volatile Organic Compounds, P&T, Purge and Trap, Moisture Control
A 57-acre site along the Mohawk River near Schenectady, N.Y., is the future home of a new casino, hotels, apartments and shopping centers. Renderings of the project include elegant glass buildings and plush green lawns. Unfortunately, the site’s history of manufacturing train parts and turbine engines dating back to the 1800s has brought the construction project to a halt. The site is now in the middle of a multi-million dollar cleanup to remove a number of harmful substances, including arsenic, mercury, lead, petroleum byproducts and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In Niskayuna, N.Y., a landfill on GE Global Research’s 525-acre campus contains more than 112 tons of hazardous waste, including VOCs. From the 1940s to the 1970s, metals, ash residue and VOCs were dumped in the landfill. State environmental agencies are recommending monitoring and excavating the site to prevent any further contamination.
Tags: VOC, Volatile Organic Compounds
Artists use eggs, glue and vegetable oils in their paints. Bed Bugs have three volatile compounds in their feces that have been combined to create a lure that makes them easier to catch; two completely different topics, and not exactly things that you read every day. They are however important to art conservationists and scientists, and we wouldn’t know about either if it weren’t for modern analytical techniques, including gas chromatography.
Tags: VOC, Volatile Organic Compounds
Within the Uintah Basin of Utah there are 15 evaporation pond farms that manage liquid waste. Recently, one of the facilities in Grand County, Utah, which receives wastewater from oil and gas mining in Colorado, was found to be operating without air-quality permits for the past six years. Since April 2008, the facility has released “tons of toxic chemicals” into the air. The company, Danish Flats Environmental Services, had also provided faulty data that did not accurately report the effectiveness of emission-control equipment on site. An analysis conducted by the states Division of Air Quality found that the site was a “major emission source for hazardous air pollutants and volatile organic compounds.” The company was subsequently fined $50,000 for its violations.
Tags: VOC, Volatile Organic Compounds, wastewater
Excitement abounds in the Teledyne Tekmar labs as the Versa headspace autosampler continues to meet the challenges of an ever-changing environmental science world. Its big brother, the HT3, started this excitement when it successfully met the challenge to detect low levels of 1,4-dioxane, bromoform, acrylonitrile and vinyl chloride in water following new environmental guidance from Korea and the Asian market.
Tags: VOC, Teledyne Tekmar, Volatile Organic Compounds, Analytical Instrumentation, Autosampler, Analyzer, Headspace, HT3, Versa, 1 4-dioxane, bromoform, acrylonitrile, vinyl chloride, VPH
The US EPA hosted a technical workshop on analytical chemical methods for hydraulic fracturing on February 25th in Research Triangle Park, NC. The goal of these workshops is to gather together stakeholders, technical experts, and EPA representatives to get updates on the progress of the EPA’s testing with regards to hydraulic fracturing. It also serves as a forum to discuss best testing practices and methodologies for this area. Teledyne Tekmar was privileged to participate as a speaker and participant in the round table panel discussions that coincided with the workshop.
Tags: VOC, Teledyne Tekmar, Sample Preparation, Volatile Organic Compounds, drinking water, chromatography, Hydraulic Fracturing, Fracking, Analytical Instrumentation, Concentrator, Autosampler, Analyzer
Automated sample preparation is built upon making instruments easier to use, faster, and more efficient. More recent features to purge and trap systems like mass flow controllers and variable volume standard addition, give more method flexibility than legacy products. The 27 mL syringe on our Atomx VOC sample prep system allows for dilution of high level samples as well as automated methanol extractions.
Tags: VOC, Teledyne Tekmar, GRO, Gasoline Range Organics, Sample Preparation, Volatile Organic Compounds