ECOPROBE 5

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ECOPROBE 5

• Portable IR/PID gas analyzer

• RS DYNAMICS

• A new dimension in detection of contaminant
  indicators

• .

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Soil Contamination Survey

• Gas from the pore space in soil and rock
  formations is known as soil vapour.

• The composition of this phase, in particular the
  presence of organic compounds, reveals vital
  information about pollution of the subsurface
  contaminant.

• Organic compounds constitute a group of
  contaminants which impact severely on
  groundwater resources.

• .

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Soil Contamination Survey

• The presence and distribution of such
  pollutants can be detected by a newly
  established technique known as
• Soil Vapour Survey (SVS)
• which is based on analysis of the soil
• gas or vapour.

• .

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Soil Contamination Survey

• The following types of contaminants are
  addressed

• 1. Liquid organic materials including
  hydrocarbons (mainly petroleum products)
  and chlorinated hydrocarbons (industrial
  solvents, metal-cutting oils etc.)

• 2. Organic vapours from landfills and from gas
  leaks

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Soil Contamination Survey

• Factors affecting in situ SV measurements

• 1. Presence of Methane of nature origin
  Methane occurs in different concentration
  everywhere in the soil environment, which
  confuses all total based in-situ
  measurements.

• 2. Type of contaminant for the SVS to be
  applied successfully, the contaminant of
  interest must yield sufficient vapour phase.
  (Some compounds like transformer oils, PCB and
  certain phenols create very low vapour phase
  and require special sampling technique).

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Soil Contamination Survey

• 3. Zoning differences in several physical
  properties of the compounds present in a
  complex contaminant (vapour pressure,
  solubility in water, mobility in the
  subsurface, resistance to degradation etc.) may
  contribute towards the heterogeneous character
  of a pollution plume.

• 4. Surface contamination a pollutant occurring
  in the surface layer will seriously affect the
  distribution and concentration patterns of an
  underlying, deep source of contamination.

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Soil Contamination Survey

• 5. Age of a contaminant All petroleum products
  experience some degree of natural
  biodegradation process in the subsurface
  environment. Lighter HC are more readily
  degraded than the heavier compounds. After a
  certain period of time the spectral
  composition of contaminants will dramatically
  change moreover, some contaminants may become
  morphologized, that is composed of non-toxic
  aromatic compounds which are out of the basic
  hydrocarbon spectrum.

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Soil Contamination Survey

• 6. Soil temperature vapour density and
  vapour diffusion will increase with
  increasing temperature.

• 7. Soil moisture the presence of moisture will
  reduce the effective porosity which will
  negatively affect the migration and the volume
  of SV available for investigation.

• 8. Soil permeability may dramatically
  influence the measured value of
  concentration of the free SV phase.

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Soil Contamination Survey

• Previous SVS methods

• Previously used time-integrated SVS methods
  applied special absorbents into which the
  analyzed soil vapour was absorbed during a
  relatively long time-interval.

• These methods did not meet natural conditions
  and yielded incorrect quantitative results.

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Soil Contamination Survey

• TEST

• Mix the identical quantity of liquid contaminant

• . . . . . . . .

• . . . . . . . .

• . . . . . . .

• Poorly permeable soil clay

• Permeable soil sand

• Measurement of SV concentration in both samples
  shows the difference of up to 2 or 3
  decimal orders.

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Soil Contamination Survey

• RS DYNAMICS developed a special
  instrumentation -- Ecoprobe 5 -- which
  provides a solution for most of the
  above-mentioned complicated conditions and
  offers the true in-situ method for a reliable
  soil contamination survey.

• Ecoprobe 5 eliminates sampling and sample
  transport problems to the lab, in this way
  offering fast, cost- effective and reliable
  location of contaminant sources and trajectories
  of the contaminant spread.

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Soil Contamination Survey

• The air is sucked into the probe and
  continuously analyzed in the instrument

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Soil Contamination Survey

• Ecoprobe 5 shows the course of measurement
  overview on the screen

• Graphs of concentrations versus time

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Soil Contamination Survey

• The identical quantity of contaminant is
  mixed into the samples

• sand

• clay

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• IR/PID correlation graphs obtained from Ecoprobe 5

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ECOPROBE 5

• Portable and compact highly sensitive gas
  analyzer providing cost-effective and
  reliable in-situ results

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ECOPROBE 5
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ECOPROBE 5

• Comprises two autonomous analyzers in one case

• PID

• IR

• Combination of PID and four channel IR analyzers
  provides solution for a variety of contamination
  survey tasks.

• .

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Applications

• Ecoprobe 5 provides a complete system and
  methodology for contaminant detection

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Basic application

• Detection monitoring of hydrocarbons and
  other organic contamination of soil water
  table from fuel spills

• Soil vapour survey was made by CSIR/ Petrocon
  (Council for Scientific and Industrial
  Research), South Africa

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Basic application

• Pipe-line leakage monitoring

• Soil vapour survey was made by CSIR /Petrocon
  (Council for Scientific and Industrial
  Research), South Africa

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Basic application

• Monitoring of soil venting processes

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Basic application

• Monitoring of petrol station UST leakage

• Soil vapour survey made by Prote, Poland

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Basic application

• Environmental Rescue Service

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Basic application

• Automatic monitoring using Ecoprobe 5 as a
  Monitoring station

• Optional stationary version of IR Ecoprobe 5
  analyzer

• Monitoring station over a large pressurized
  underground gas reservoir

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Basic application

• Detection and monitoring of Ammonia
  content and gaseous toxins in agriculture

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Basic application

• Detection and monitoring of gaseous toxins in
  industrial plants

• Monitoring of in-situ bio-remediation
  processes

• Air pollution monitoring (PID)

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Basic application

• Monitoring of waste dumps

• UST (Underground Storage Tanks) leakage

• Ecoprobe 5 can be used as a sophisticated
  sampling device. Absorbent cartridge can be
  connected to the instrument outlet.

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Data Logging

• GPS coordinates logging

• Commercial use of GPS has proven invaluable in
  many fields. It can be used to track everything
  from migrating animal herds to the creep of the
  earths crust.

GPS consists of 24 satellites in predictable
orbits around the earth. The system provides
24-hour positioning information.
Ecoprobe 5 is the first world-wide geophysical
instrument to provide GPS positioning !!
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GPS Data Logging

• GPS satellite orbital information is referenced
  to WGS 84. WGS 84 is an earth - fixed global
  reference frame using latitude and longitude
  coordinate system to locate points on the Earths
  surface.

• The GPS system in Ecoprobe 5 can be used if a
  specific software is activated and if a special
  RS DYNAMICS GPS receiver is available.

• Depending upon accuracy requirements, users may
  select from GPS systems with
• Meter precision
• Decimeter precision
• Centimeter precision

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Data Logging

• Standard data logging system

• ?

• 35, 25

• 15, 5

• Data are saved in an orderly manner

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PID Analyzer

• Measures total concentration of volatile
  organic compounds and other toxic gases
  including chlorinated hydrocarbons

• Result value measured by PID

• 3000 ppm

• Methane

• VOC Spectrum

• PID analyzer selectively excludes Methane
  from the total sum

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PID Analyzer

• Two ranges

• detection limit 0.1 ppm upper limit 4000 ppm
  (output also in mg/ m?)

• STANDARD

• detection limit 0.1 ppb (0.0001 ppm) upper
  limit 100 ppm (output also in µg/m?)

• HISENS

• HISENS mode is extremely sensitive (intended
  for precise measurement ). It is not
  recommended for the typical soil vapour survey
  since factors like moisture, presence of
  methane, under-pressure may influence the
  results.

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PID Analyzer

• Spectral characteristic of Ecoprobe 5 PID unit
  is equal to the laboratory gas chromatograph
  unit (if the same lamp is used) which brings
  very close results between Ecoprobe 5 outputs
  and laboratory analysis results for given
  samples.

• Interchangeable ion lamps (10.2 eV standard)

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PID Analyzer

• RELATIVE ANALYSIS

• Fast and cost effective identification of
  relative concentration cloud, contaminant
  sources, path and the range of
  contaminated area. Table of measured compounds
  by PID offers mixtures of most common
  contaminants (Diesel Fuel, Gasoline, Jet Fuel).
  Select the compound characterizing the
  contaminant to get most reliable data.

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PID Analyzer

• QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

• Ecoprobe 5 is calibrated for Isobuthylene
  (Isobuthylene represents the most suitable gas
  which is also used in laboratory gas
  chromatographs). Responses to other compounds
  are different. The instrument is, however,
  automaticaly calibrated for about 200
  compounds. In spite of this fact Ecoprobe 5 is
  not a spectral sensitive analyzer.

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PID Analyzer

• QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

• In an ideal case when composition of
  contaminant is known and created by one
  compound, select the compound from the list
  that is chemically equal or close to the
  contaminant . You will get quantitative
  concentration of vapour phase.

• 1 compound

• Commonly the contaminant is a complicated
  mixture of compounds. However, it is possible
  to get approximately quantitative, fast and
  reliable results for a typical soil vapour
  survey

• more compounds

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• Application of PID Analyzer

• 1. For measuring small values of contaminant
  concentration

• 2. For measuring wider spectrum of contaminant

• 3. For quantitative measurement

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IR Analyzer

• Provides selective detection of METHANE,
  Petroleum Hydrocarbons and Carbon Dioxide.

• 4 independent channels ( ppm or mg/m? output )
  

• Methane 0 -500 000 ppm, detection limit 20 ppm

• Petroleum Hydrocarbons - including Methane 0 -
  500 000 ppm, d.l. 20 ppm

• Carbon Dioxide 0 - 500 000 ppm, d.l. 20 ppm

• Reference channel

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IR Analyzer

• If hydrocarbons are present in the
  contaminant, consequent continuity between PID
  and IR outputs can be observed.

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• Application of IR Analyzer

• Relative and fast in situ monitoring of
  contaminant

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• On-line data transfer from Ecoprobe 5 to
  the computer

• Communication software for transferring data
  to a computer and for basic graphic evaluating
  of measured data. Data format compatible with
  Surfer, Grapher, Geosoft, etc.

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• Data processing using Communication Software

• ECOPROBE PLUS

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Graphic results using Ecoprobe Plus communication
software

• 1. Values from all channels for a particular line

• ?

• ?

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2. All lines for one parameter

• Graphic results using Ecoprobe Plus communication
  software

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• Graphic results using Ecoprobe Plus communication
  software

• 3. Course of measurement on one site

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• Graphic results using graphic softwares -
  Grapher, Surfer etc.

• Contour map of subsurface contaminant
  location

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• THE END