Oil Pollution
Independent Monitoring System
APPLICATION
- Fast on-site and in-situ analysis
- Detection of petroleum hydrocarbons (PH) and polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAC)
- Semi-quantitative and quantitative determination
- Mapping of contaminated waste-sites
- Monitoring of process streams
(remediation) - Subsurface in-situ measurements by combination of the OPTIMOS with CPT-probes or hand-held motor driven penetration systems
- Fast acquisition of depth profiles
The OPTIMOS LIF-System
Surveys of contaminated abandoned waste-sites often represents expensive and time-consuming tasks. Analysis of an insufficient number of non-representative samples may lead to an error-prone risk assessment.
OPTIMOS (Oil Pollution Independent Monitoring System) allows the detection of petroleum hydrocarbons (PH) and polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAH) directly in soils and waters without sampling and sample preparation. Moreover, biological and chemical compounds like chlorophyll a and chromophoric dissolved organic matter can be detected.
Spectral- and time resolved data are acquired using laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopy. Semi-quantitative or quantitative analysis with sufficient sensitivity (PH < 100 ppm, PAH < 10 ppm)* is so performed within a few seconds. Sampling strategies can be optimized according to the analytical results. This allows fast identification of hot spots or the estimation of the distribution of a contaminant.
OPTIMOS operates using fiber-optical probes. Different types of probes are available, e.g. for the integration in observation wells, a combination with CPT-probes or with hand-held motor driven penetration systems. Due to the fast analysis, depth profiles can be obtained while the probe is driven into the soil. The shape of the probe avoids an entrainment, even of adhesive soils, during drilling. This way contaminated layers can be investigated safely.
OPTIMOS has been developed and validated with support from the German federal foundation for the environment (DBU). The system has been validated in „round-robin“ tests of contaminated industrial waste-sites which were supervised by several German state ministries for the environment.
* The sensitivity of the system depends on the conatminant and the matrix
