Chapter 23 - Environmental Applications: Waters, Sediments and Soils

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This chapter illustrates the advantages of flow injection analysis (FIA) for maximizing the information obtained from transient ion-selective electrode signals. These advantages also apply to voltammetric techniques. FIA techniques are described for the determination of numerous parameters in water and wastewater monitoring. Selected examples of flow analysis methods for the determination of nutrient species in waters, sediments, and soils are demonstrated in the chapter. However, the routine rather than research application of these techniques, using commercial instrumentation, is limited to a restricted number of parameters. The area where FIA has achieved the most widespread application is nutrient monitoring in natural waters and wastewaters. Another commercial application of FIA, due to its ability to handle small sample volumes in a closed system, is the determination of cyanide species in waste and environmental waters. Some of the major challenges facing the application of FIA to waters, sediments, and soils are also discussed. However, the primary objective of the application of FIA to the analysis of waters, sediments, and soils, either in the laboratory or the field, is to obtain high-quality chemical data for the purpose of improved understanding and protection of environmental systems.

Section snippets

Legislative and Economic Drivers

Environmental protection plays an increasing role in today's society as evidenced by more stringent regulations and international agreements such as the OSPAR Convention, Kyoto Protocol and Montreal Protocol. National and trans-national regulations include the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive, Australia's National Water Initiative and the US-based Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA). Their success requires proper implementation, e.g., reliable monitoring

Laboratory instrumentation

Flow analysis is an approach to mechanized analytical chemistry usually carried out inside narrow bore tubing. An aliquot of an aqueous sample is introduced into the flow system and pushed towards the detector by the carrier/wash stream. During transport through the analytical path, the sample undergoes dispersion and dilution, resulting in a well-defined sample zone that undergoes reproducible, on-line physical and chemical treatment, e.g., dilution, reagent addition and dialysis. Sample

Waters

Waters are analysed for a variety of reasons, depending on their origins, beneficial uses and immediate and ultimate destinations. This requires methods for a host of different parameters over a wide range of concentrations (Table 3). The principal drivers for water analysis are:

  • Protection of human health, both for drinking waters and primary contact.

  • The assessment of the status of aquatic ecosystems, e.g., defining a reference condition, as part of the protection and improvement of natural

Overview

This section describes selected references since 1990 from readily available literature sources. It is not a comprehensive review of the literature but rather an overview that illustrates some of the attractive features of FIA for the quantitative determination of important analytes in waters, sediments and soils. For convenience the sample matrix, methodological details and key analytical figures of merit are presented in tabular form for the following generic classes of analytes:

  • Nutrients (

FUTURE TRENDS

FIA techniques have been described for the determination of numerous parameters in water and wastewater monitoring, as demonstrated by the examples listed in Table 5, Table 6, Table 7, Table 8. However, the routine rather than research application of these techniques, using commercial instrumentation, has been limited to a restricted number of parameters. The area where FIA has achieved the most widespread application is nutrient monitoring in natural waters and wastewaters. Another popular

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONS

    1,4- TCBQ

    Tetrachloro-1,4-benzoquinone

    5-Br-PADAP

    2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-diethylaminophenol

    8-HQ

    8-hydroxyquinoline or 8-quinolinol

    μTAS

    μ-Total analytical system

    AAS

    Atomic absorption spectrometry

    AFS

    Atomic fluorescence spectrometry

    APHP

    Alkaline phosphatase hydrolysable phosphorus. Phospho monoesters are hydrolysed to molybdate reactive P

    BNR

    Biological nutrient removal

    BOD

    Biological oxygen demand

    BOX

    Billirubin oxidase

    CASS

    Coastal Atlantic seawater standard

    CCD

    Charge-coupled device

    CDTA

    1,2

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  • Cited by (6)

    • Flow injection analysis as a tool for enhancing oceanographic nutrient measurements-A review

      2013, Analytica Chimica Acta
      Citation Excerpt :

      This is in contrast to an older and commonly used technique, viz.; segmented continuous flow analysis (SCFA) which operates under turbulent flow conditions with bubble segmentation, with the requirement that detection reactions reach a steady state. Hence flow injection analysis is not merely segmented flow analysis without the bubbles, but a technique that operates under quite different flow conditions that confer a number of additional advantages, such as the ability to perform kinetic measurements using transient signals, on-line preconcentration and column separation methods on-line [23]. There are several identifiable generations of flow injection systems, all of which are currently used to advantage in oceanographic analysis.

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