Sensors check soil and water quality

An Ion Science product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Oct 26, 2007

Set with gasoline vapours as its target gas, PhoCheck+ detected oil levels ranging from 3 to 33 parts per million across the contaminated area.

Ecomatic has demonstrated to the Estonian Environmental and Rescue Board the capabilities of Ion Science PhoCheck+ for fast, effective determination of VOCs in soil and water.

Two road incidents that involved fuel oil contaminating land with VOCs provided suitable detection conditions for PhoCheck+.

In the first incident in the North-East of Estonia, an Oil Tanker overturned spilling its three tonnes of fuel oil, polluting several hundred square metres of soil.

Eduard Vanamoelder, Gas Detection Manager, Ecomatic passed through the scene to find a dedicated team of on-side road engineers working to eradicate all remains of oil contamination.

It was evident however, that no instrumentation was being used to monitor the VOCs present.

Equipped with a PhoCheck+ 3000, Eduard offered the instrument to measure oil residues within the soil.

Set with gasoline vapours as its target gas, PhoCheck+ detected oil levels ranging from 3 to 33 parts per million across the contaminated area.

The measurement readings were then downloaded and sent to the local Environmental and Rescue Service for review.

The second incident involved an oil spill from a car where fuel oil had leaked into a nearby ditch and stream.

The flow of water caused the oil to travel some distance away from the scene, making fast detection crucial to stop the spread of further contamination.

PhoCheck+ 3000 was used to quickly find the pollution within the stream, allowing the Environmental and Rescue Services to build a ditch and obstruct further contamination.

PhoCheck+ encompasses an in-built highly sensitive patent photoionisation detector (PID).

With a dynamic detection range capable of 1 part per billion up to 10,000 parts per million, PhoCheck+ is the only PID on the market able to detect VOCs at such low thresholds and explosive limits.

It is now a fully upgradeable instrument, enabling the user to upgrade from the basic PhoCheck+ 1000Ex to the PhoCheck 5000Ex.

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