Monitor of heavy metals (Zn, Cd, Cu, Ag, Pd, Co, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Cr, Ca, Mg) in waters (waste water and surface water as well) based on atomic emission light source the so called Electrolyte Catode Discharge, ELCAD

Title:

Resource Type:

hardware/technology --> monitoring / sensing

Country:

Hungary

Year:

1997

Availability:

Being under further development it is produced in small series only. It is available directly from Aqua Concorde Water Analysis and Water Technology Ltd (www. aqua-concorde.hu, Budapest, Hungary).

Producers or distributor

Aqua Concorde Water Analysis and Water Technology Ltd

Author / Producer Type:

Developer

Web link for product information:

http://www.aqua-concorde.hu

EUGRIS Keyword(s):

Water and sanitation-->Water and sanitation Overview

Short description:

The Electrolyte Cathode Discharge (ELCAD) spectrometry was invented in 1994 as a revolutionary new direct analytical detecting method for heavy metal monitoring for waste waters loaded with high fat emulsion and suspended solid contents like municipal sewage waters mixed with industrial waste waters ewith the aim to detect illegal industrial metal concentrate releases into the municipal sewerage system.

Long description:

A prototype ELCAD Waste Water Metal Monitor was constructed (Zn, Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and total Cr channels, 0.1 – 10 – 100 mg/l ranges) and installed for a 2 year continuous monitoring at the inlet basin of the North-Pest Municipal Sewage Water Treating Plant receiving 40.000 m3/day mixed industrial (pretreated) and domestic waste waters of 500 mg/l COD and 300 mg/l suspended matter in average. Several illegal industrial waste release peaks were detected mostly at night times and weekends while the regular daily water composition measurements always showed values under limits. These violations lasted 0.5 – 2 hours and their time distribution were extremely sporadic ( only 2-5 cases in a year). The operation cost was under 1 US$/day at 2 measurements/hour frequency. No competitive instrument is available on the market due to the lack of proper measuring methods accepting such fat-emulsion loaded sample. Special advantages: -no sample nebulization step, cathode sputtering effect transports the analyte ions into the excitation range of the low power DC plasma, -no specific reagents or rare gases are used, only HCl and surfactant added to dissolve carbonates, hydroxydes and sulfides -high suspended solid content and even oil and fat emulsion contents are allowed in the sample, only components dissolved at pH 1.5-1.7 are measured (all type of dissolved complexes are involved!), -low power consumption, the DC glow plasma runs on average 60 W -4-6 measurements / hour, 10 mL/min sample consumption

Submitted By:

Dr Tamas Cserfalvi WhoDoesWhat? Last update: 14/01/2006