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- Groundwater (4)
- Interlaboratory comparison (3)
- Aniline (2)
- Chloroanilines (2)
- Methylanilines (2)
- Phenols (2)
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Organisationseinheit der BAM
The role of matrix reference materials in the process of demonstrating the degree of equivalence of measurement results obtained from intercomparisons is outlined, reviewing exemplary selected experience gained at BAM regarding the determination of organic contaminants in environmental matrices.
The specific characteristics of reference materials employed in the process of demonstrating equivalence between laboratories in the course of proficiency testing as well as the development, comparison and validation of methods are elaborated. The demand is for series of appropriately characterised samples which are fit for the purpose and it is seen from representative examples that the utilisation of such tailor-made RM designed to tackle the specific need of an analytical problem dominates over certified matrix reference materials in this context. Concluding, the role of certified matrix reference materials in quality assurance is briefly looked at both from the users and providers points of view.
The reliability in measurement results obtained during environmental monitoring is crucial for the assessment and further planning of remediation efforts on the respective contaminated sites by the responsible authorities. A case study concerned with groundwater contaminated with perchloroethylene, trichloroethylene and 1,1,2-trichlorotrifluoroethane including their degradation products which involves private contract laboratories and an independent provider of quality assurance (QA) is presented. The experience gained with biannual monitoring campaigns over 14 years indicates that the selection of contractors on basis of accreditation status and successful performance in interlaboratory comparisons are not sufficient. Rather the auditing of the contractors by the QA provider prior to each campaign and the crosschecking of selected monitoring samples by the QA provider led to a lasting improvement of reliability in the contractors' measurement results. A mean deviation of 20% from the reference value determined by the QA provider for the crosschecked samples was reached.
The nature and concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in chars generated by hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is of concern considering their application as soil amendment. Therefore, the presence of VOCs in solid HTC products obtained from wheat straw, biogas digestate and four woody materials was investigated using headspace gas chromatography. A variety of potentially harmful benzenic, phenolic and furanic volatiles along with various aldehydes and ketones were identified in feedstock- and temperature-specific patterns. The total amount of VOCs observed after equilibration between headspace and char samples produced at 270 °C ranged between 2000 and 16,000 µg/g (0.2–1.6 wt.%). Depending on feedstock 50–9000 µg/g of benzenes and 300–1800 µg/g of phenols were observed. Substances potentially harmful to soil ecology such as benzofurans (200–800 µg/g) and p-cymene (up to 6000 µg/g in pine wood char) exhibited concentrations that suggest restrained application of fresh hydrochar as soil amendment or for water purification.
A practical method for the quantification of
total purgeable organic sulfur (POS) in highly contaminated
groundwater is described. Volatile organic sulfur
compounds (VOSC) are purged from the water samples by
a stream of oxygen and combusted. The emerging sulfur
dioxide is absorbed in H2O2 and converted to sulfate which
is quantified by ion chromatography and reported as mass
sulfur equivalent. The overall limit of quantification is
0.03 mg l1. The content of POS is balanced with the total
VOSC determined by GC-AED after liquidliquid extraction.
Separate determination of the non-volatile organic
sulfur compounds by direct combustion of the water sample
and adsorption to charcoal yielded a mass balance of
the total sulfur content. Semi-quantitative GC-MS after
purge & trap accumulation revealed that the VOSC mixture
is composed of C1C4 alkyl sulfides. The implementation
of the developed methodology for the quantification of
VOSC as potential catalyst poison in a cleaning plant
for groundwater contaminated with volatile haloorganics
(VOX) is presented.
The concentration of contaminants in groundwater samples can be decreased by degradation in the time course between field sampling and quantification in the laboratory, especially in samples from sites where degradation activity is enhanced by remediation measures. The sampling sites covered a variety of priority organic pollutants such as volatile aromatic and chlorinated compounds, phenols and petroleum hydrocarbons and different remediation strategies such as anaerobic and aerobic microbial in situ degradation, in situ chemical oxidation, and on-site purification with biological treatment. The stability of the contaminants' concentration was investigated over a time range of several hours without cooling in the autosampler of the analytical equipment (short term) and over several days of storage until analysis (long term). A number of stabilisation techniques suggested in international standards ISO 5667-3:2013 and ASTM D6517:2000 were compared both with regard to short term and long term stabilisation of the contaminants and their practicability for field sampling campaigns. Long term storage turned out to be problematic for most compound groups even under cooling. Short term stability was problematic also for volatiles such as benzenic aromates, naphthalene and volatile organic halogenated compounds to be analysed by headspace gas chromatography. Acidification (pH <2) was sufficient to prevent degradation of benzenic aromates, naphthalene, phenols and petrol hydrocarbons for up to seven days. The use of acids was not applicable to stabilise volatiles in waters rich in carbonates and sulphides due to stripping of the volatiles with the liberated gases. The addition of sodium azide was successfully used for stabilisation of volatile organic halogenated compounds.
Three chromatographic procedures were investigated regarding their potential for the quantification of aniline and 19 of its methylated and chlorinated derivatives in groundwater. These methods were based on liquid-liquid-extraction in combination with gas chromatography and single quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC/MS) according to German standard DIN 38407-16:1999 and its extension using tandem mass spectrometry (GC/MS-MS), both following liquid-liquid extraction, and as third alternative the direct injection of the water sample into a liquid chromatograph coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS-MS). Results were compared using fortified water and real-world contaminated groundwater used in an interlaboratory comparison. It could be shown that GC/MS and GC/MS-MS yielded results deviating less than 10% from each other while all three procedure displayed quantification results deviating less than 15% from the intercomparison reference values in case of each analyte in the concentration range between 1 and 45 µg L-1. Though GC/MS-MS displays a ten-fold higher sensitivity than single quadrupole GC/MS, the precision of both methods in the concentration range was similar. LC/MS-MS has the advantage of no further sample preparation due to the direct injection and leads for methylanilines and meta-, para- substituted chloroanilines to results sufficiently equivalent to the standardised GC/MS method. However, LC/MS-MS is not suitable for ortho-chloroaniline derivates due to significantly lower ion yields than meta- and para-substituted chloroanilines.
Process waters obtained from hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of wheat straw, a biogas digestate derived thereof, and four woody biomass feedstocks were quantified regarding the total organic carbon (TOC) and selected organic compounds. HTC runs revealed that TOC loads were largely unaffected by process severity or type of feedstock whereas the C2–C6 fatty acids, determined by GC, displayed clear effects of temperature and feedstock. HPLC demonstrated simultaneously the initial increase and subsequent consumption of cellulose-derived furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural as well as the increase of the lignin-derived 2-methoxyphenol. 2-Methylbenzofuran, an example for a substance potentially harmful to aquatic biota, was observed in high concentration in the HTC liquor from wheat straw-based feedstocks.
An interlaboratory comparison for the determination of aniline, nine methylated anilines and chlorinated anilines in contaminated groundwater (each compound between 1 µg L-1 and 750 µg L-1) was conducted as proficiency test for the selection of contract laboratories for a groundwater monitoring campaign. For the 13 participants, two different test sample series were prepared from a stabilized real case groundwater. Series A was the groundwater as sampled in the field and series B was prepared from series A by spiking with selected anilines. Homogeneity and stability investigations revealed that contaminated groundwater provides a viable basis for the preparation of ring test samples for the determination of anilines. Analytical procedures were limited to the standardized liquid–liquid extraction or solid-phase extraction in combination with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (DIN 38407-16:1999). The robust consensus values were evaluated according to the standardized protocol of DIN 38402-45:2013. Robust reproducibility standard deviations ranged largely between 20?% and 60?% depending on the analyte. The proficiency assessment of individual participants combined the qualitative aspect of correct peak identification with the quantitative determination of individual concentrations within set limits in a unified approach. It could be shown that the accreditation status of laboratory and the existence of a standardized analytical procedure do not substitute a problem-related proficiency assessment of potential contractors.