TOC Analyses Difficult Industrial Water Samples

Expanding GE’s capabilities for process, environmental and wastewater analysis, the Sievers InnovOx On-Line Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Analyser will allow users to analyse challenging water samples on a routine basis without requiring excessive preventive maintenance. Monitoring the levels of TOC in the water is an important step for industrial users to control processes that are critical to their operations and to comply with regulations.

The Sievers InnovOx offers increased uptime and instrument reliability, two important features when it comes to analysing difficult industrial samples. It has been designed by GE Power & Water’s analytical instruments unit (www.geinstruments.com) for the petrochemical, petroleum, pulp and paper and food and beverage markets, as well as environmental organisations and municipalities.

The InnovOx On-Line, like its InnovOx Laboratory model predecessor, uses an innovative Supercritical Water Oxidation (SCWO) technique that offers enhanced reliability, greater ease of use and lower maintenance than other TOC analysers available today. By utilizing SCWO, the InnovOx is the TOC instrument most capable of cost effectively analysing difficult industrial process, environmental and wastewater samples on a routine basis.

SCWO has historically been used to treat large volumes of aqueous waste streams, sludges and contaminated soils. GE is the first company to use this technique in a commercially available TOC analyser.

The first commercial application for the new InnovOx On-Line TOC Analyser is monitoring seawater in Taiwan. The seawater, which contains about 3 percent sodium chloride, is used as industrial process water, and both incoming and outgoing water streams need to be monitored for environmental protection. One of the main sources of contamination can be hydrocarbons coming from a petrochemical refining process. The InnovOx’s robust handling of the brine sample was a significant factor in the analyzer’s selection.

“The TOC market demanded technology with greater reliability and uptime, two critical needs that were not being met,” said Stephen Poirier, vice president of business development for the analytical instruments unit of GE Power & Water. “Our patent-pending InnovOx technology offers increased uptime and instrument reliability and handles tough samples easily.”