Analysis of semivolatile organic compounds in waste

Environmental laboratories are responsible for environmental analyses and consultancy services concerning water, soil, waste and compost. They often have significant synergies with industrial and commercial activities to help them manage the storage, treatment and recovery of urban, special and hazardous waste, plastic and paper packaging.

Environmental laboratories deal everyday with extractions of various contaminants from different environmental matrices like soils, clays, sediments, sludge and solid wastes.

Working daily with a high workload of solid waste, they often feel the need to improve their sample preparation procedure for waste samples, which is frequently difficult and unreliable with the PLE Pressurized Liquid Extraction technology, especially when processing samples with high plastic contents.

Many environmental laboratories have already implemented ETHOS X microwave extraction system with the fastEX-24 rotor, which allows the simultaneous extraction of 24 samples in 40 minutes with minimal solvent usage. By using disposable and inexpensive 100 mL glass vials, the fastEX-24 rotor simplifies handling and allows to achieve lower detection limits, eliminating memory effect and carryover.

Moreover, the robustness of this microwave hardware led to expand the application range:

“It has demonstrated to be able to process all kind of solid matrices, even those with high plastic content or highly polluted ones, eliminating any clogging problem that typically occurs with sequential technique” - IREN Ambiente (Italy)

Read more here.

Practically no learning curve or expertise is needed to use the system: the operator simply follows a quick-to adopt process to prepare the run.

Microwave solvent extractions are performed in compliance with the US EPA Method 3546 for the determination of Semivolatile Organic Compounds (SVOC Analysis) that include hydrocarbons, dioxins, phenols, pesticides, PCBs, PAHs, phthalate esters. No method development is needed and its implementation is very easy and smooth. Laboratories can rapidly get consistent recoveries, comparable to those obtained with the previous-adopted extraction technique.

Read real-word examples and testimonials.