New Online System for Mercury, Arsenic and Selenium in Wastewater

Environmental Agencies worldwide are enforcing new regulations and controls to reduce the amount of toxic metals discharged to surface waters from industrial sources. For over 30 years PS Analytical (UK) have offered laboratory based systems based on AFS for total and speciation measurements for Mercury and Hydride forming elements such as Arsenic and Selenium. The AFS technology is now being applied to online measurements. Systems offer detection limits at the part per trillion levels with linearity over 7 orders of magnitude. Alternative measurement systems such as ICP-MS arecostly and suffer from matrix interferences due to the high total dissolved solids of wastewater samples. With AFS samples are analysed direct using a UV photolysis system which provides a determination for total metal content. The PSA systems offer an online measurement solution to ensure that abatement systems are effectively achieving permitted levels.