Researchers from the south coast of England have established a small network ofmonitoring instruments in Christchurch Harbour and associated rivers to study the effects of weather events on water quality, and to better understand the magnitude and spatial/temporal variation of macronutrient fluxes - nitrogen (N), carbon (C) and phosphorus (P).
The project, which is financed by a Natural Environmental Research Councilgrant, has involved the installation of three continuous monitoring stations; one in the harbour itself, a second in the river Avon and a third in the river Stour.
Quantitech, the Milton Keynes based environmental instrumentation specialist, has reported a surge in demand for its rentable emissions analysers. The company’s Dominic Duggan says: “This is undoubtedly for two reasons; first and foremost, the two main analysers are MCERTS approved and secondly, they are both transportable and simple to carry from one site to the next.”
Traditional methods for measuring airborne particulate matter measure particle mass per unit air volume, usually with an upper size limit of x microns (PMx etc.). However, from a human health perspective, the particles of most interest are those that penetrate deep into the lungs. For this reason, Air Monitors has launched the Naneos Partector nanoparticle detector in the UK.
Handheld PID used for nightly monitoring of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during on-site headspace testing of contaminated soil samples on railway contracts.
A major new money saving and environmentally beneficial smart kitchen app is due to be launched on the 2015 World Environment Day, Friday 5th of June. The hotly anticipated EatBy App has been tipped to become the must have app of 2015 as it promises to save it's users up to £700 every year and help reduce food waste.
In a recent press release Quantitech Limited announced that the SICK 3006 is the only portable FID with MCERTS approval for using either hydrogen or hydrogen/helium fuel gas. This claim was challenged, but Sira Certification has confirmed that the 3006 passed the MCERTS performance requirements for both gas options.
Quantitech first launched the InfraCal 2, a portable oil in water analyser, in 2013 and the company’s Dr Andrew Hobson says: “There has been a heavy demand for this instrument in the oil sector because of the new functionality that now comes as standard.The InfraCal2 can now be operated from an internal battery and also provides lower detection limits.
Researchers at the UK’s Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) have conducted trials on the river Thames to evaluate a new remote phosphate monitoring technology (Cycle-P)as part of a high-frequency (hourly resolution) monitoring programme that is studying river nutrient concentrations and how they are affected by algal abundance. The monitoring system ran continuously over the summer of 2014,measuring total reactive phosphate levels in the river, day and night, seven days a week. These results have now been compared with manually collected samples that were analysed in a laboratory with the traditional Murphy and Riley spectrophotometric method on unfiltered samples, and Dr Mike Bowes, senior nutrient hydrochemist at CEH, says: “The Cycle-P is working really well; the system operated independently for long periods and produced results that tracked our lab samples closely.”
Quantitech (Milton Keynes) has announced the launch of theFROG-4000™, a rugged, portable instrument capable of analysing trace levels of individual volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in air, soil and water. “With this technology, operators will be able to conduct fast on-site analysis in a range of environmental, health and safety applications,”says Quantitech’s Dr Andrew Hobson. “The ability to analyse VOCs quickly, on-site, is a major benefit; partly, because samples containing volatiles are notoriously difficult to transport, but also because many applications require instant data.