Automated Monitor Systems for the Continuous Surveillance of Environmental Samples

Abstract

Todays progress in chemical and allied industries as well as the product development leading to such progress depend upon the successful mastering of environmental and safety and health problems. There is a challenging need for the identification and quantification of hazardous substances in the air and water at concentrations in the ppm, ppb and often ppt range or below that value. A continuous surveillance is best achieved by automated monitor devices, responding to specific chemicals of choice. In our Department of Analytical Research we have been developing surveillance monitor systems for several years and we accumulated experience in the field of ambient air and waste water control. Our instrumental concept was to construct an easily controlled mobile instrument, distinguished by its high sensitivity and specificity for trace and ultratrace substances, and its versatility and sturdiness in field measurements. The monitor systems represent integrated analysis systems in which standardization and calibration procedures, trace enrichment steps and gas chromatographic separations are linked together on-line thus permitting a continuous, automated operation. Conventional as well as unconventional detectors, such as a mass spectrometer may be coupled with the separation step, The monitor systems are designed to perform survey analyses at a rate of one to ten analyses per hour on the hour and may be equipped with an acoustic or optical warning device, indicating the moment when a specific substance surpasses a certain critical concentration limit. The paper describes three types of instrument designs, distinguished by their degree of sophistication, i.e. the detection limit on one side and the different media in which it operates on the other