Tackling sample preparation bottlenecks in environmental analysis

Environmental testing laboratories are operating in an increasingly demanding landscape, where high productivity, cost efficiency, and strict regulatory compliance must coexist. In both heavy metals and organic pollutants analysis, sample preparation continues to represent one of the most significant bottlenecks in the analytical workflow.

Laboratories are required to process a wide variety of complex matrices, such as solids, sludges, soils, waters, and biological samples, while meeting regulated methods and ever-lower action and reporting limits. At the same time, fast turnaround times and urgent analyses are becoming the norm, placing additional pressure on already stretched resources.

Sample preparation is often labour-intensive and time-consuming, relying heavily on hazardous acids and solvents. This creates multiple challenges, including risks to operator health and safety, limited availability of fume hood space, and increased potential for contamination or reliability of results.

Despite the diversity of analytical techniques, heavy metals and organic pollutants workflows share common preparation challenges: reproducibility, throughput, safety, and compliance.

Addressing these challenges requires a strategic focus on sample preparation as a critical component of the analytical process. If there is no confidence in the initial sample preparation stage, there can be no confidence in the results from subsequent analyses. Since 1988, Milestone has provided sample preparation tools featuring unmatched safety, throughput, performance and ease of use. Decades of experience in this field have led to the development of advanced technologies for standardising and controlling key stages in the preparation process, including digestion, extraction and mercury analysis.

By leveraging Milestone’s microwave-based and automation-enabled solutions, laboratories can improve reproducibility, while maintaining full compliance with international environmental methods.

By streamlining workflows and improving process control, Milestone provides new assets to achieve superior elemental analysis through a better sample preparation workflow.