From Lab to Field: Oil-in-Water Testing with ASTM D8193 and IR Technology

Accurate oil-in-water testing is essential for environmental compliance, industrial wastewater monitoring and upstream and downstream oil and gas operations.

eralytics has developed oil-in-water testers that replace traditional gravimetric and chromatographic methods with advanced infrared (IR) spectroscopy. This provides higher accuracy, faster results and improved environmental sustainability.

ASTM D8193 – The state-of-the-art approach to oil-in-water testing

Traditional oil-in-water analysis methods, such as gravimetric determination and gas chromatography (GC), are time-consuming, solvent-intensive and prone to analytical errors. Gravimetric methods require solvent evaporation, leading to the loss of volatile hydrocarbons ('light ends'), while GC methods only detect fractions eluting within a predefined time window. Both limitations negatively affect accuracy and reproducibility.

eralytics oil-in-water testers ERACHECK ECO and ERACHECK X are fully compliant to the advanced standard ASTM D8193, an IR transmission method that measures extracted hydrocarbons without solvent evaporation. This approach ensures a more complete hydrocarbon profile and significantly improved precision. ASTM D8193 delivers significantly higher accuracy and precision (r = 0.25 mg/L) over a wide measuring range of 0 - 3000 mg/L as compared to other methods. Both analysers use the inexpensive and eco-friendly CFC-free solvent, cyclohexane, for the sample extraction and offer an excellent correlation with established reference methods, such as EPA 1664, ISO 9377-2 (modified) and OSPAR.

ERACHECK ECO: The CFC-free oil-in-water tester

ERACHECK ECO is eralytics’ stand-alone oil-in-water tester designed primarily for laboratory and routine compliance applications. Using non-dispersive infrared transmission spectroscopy, it can quantify total oil and grease (TOG) and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in water, with detection limits down to sub-ppm levels.

For selective TPH analysis, the ERACHECK ECO can be used with Florisil^® solid phase extraction cartridges to remove polar compounds prior to measurement. eralytics’ 10-position autosampler is an optional accessory for the oil-in-water tester ERACHECK ECO making it the perfect solution for higher sample throughput and even more efficiency.

ERACHECK X: The portable oil-in-water tester

The ERACHECK X is eralytics' portable oil-in-water tester. Despite its compact size, it features a robust yet lightweight metal housing. Its ruggedness and reliability make it the ideal solution in tough ambient conditions for the daily work on oil drilling platforms and as a portable field tester for wastewater professionals.

ERACHECK X features a simplified extraction procedure, thus requiring minimal glassware and cleaning effort, while the fully automated measurement of the extract takes only two minutes and on-site results are available in less than 5 minutes. Despite its small footprint, ERACHECK X achieves sub-ppm precision and is fully compliant with ASTM D8193.