New instrument for measuring contamination in water

STS Instruments have launched a new Liquid Sampling Probe for its SMF 2 (Surface Monitoring Fluorimeter) that will instantly and accurately check levels of organic contamination such as sewage in river waters.

The SMF 2 is a spectrophotometer that uses short wavelength UV to excite materials of interest on surfaces or in solution and detects the resulting fluorescence. It is easily portable by hand and can monitor extremely low levels of analytes in solution direct from the sampling point. This then allows remedial measures, if needed, to start immediately and cuts out the delays caused by sending samples to laboratories.

The SMF 2 has been applied to Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons and to Tryptophan solution measurements. In the latter case, determination down to 0.1 ppm in river waters, following only filtration and possibly dilution, gives reproducible results. Correlation of these measurements to the standard five-day biological oxygen demand measurement would give an instant measure of sewage pollution (Reynolds and Ahmed) and work is in hand at the University of Newcastle to establish this.

Recent research has shown that fluorescence can be used to trace sewage, pulp mill and landfill leachates in rivers and underground waters, either by measuring the pollutants directly (Baker, 2002,2003), or by the use of an added tracer, such as Rhodamine, Fluorescein or optical brighteners.

For copies of source papers, graphs and response curves, please contact STS Instruments, e-mail: sales@safetrainingsystems.com