Water monitoring
Online monitoring of nitrates and organic impurities optimises water quality
producers, has to achieve safe limits of its compositional elements. One group of compounds present in water that must fall
T
within safe limits includes nitrates (NO3-), and while naturally occurring in vegetables and the human body, excessive levels present a risk to health. With up to 50 parts per million (ppm) considered safe for children, and adults with immune system vulnerabilities, the UK and EU have set this figure as a maximum level within water for consumption. In addition to nitrates, drinking water must also be disinfected to leave only safe levels of bacteria. Critical for the food and beverage industry, taste is also impacted by nitrate levels and organic impurities. These compounds and organic matter also have to be closely monitored to ensure end-product quality for other sectors that rely on pure water, such as pharmaceutical production. Even industries that only use water to
o ensure public health, the quality of the water we consume, whether straight out of the tap, from bottled spring water, or from processed drinks and foods
From bottled drinks to textile manufacturing processes, optimising the quality and safety of water requires reliable measurement of nitrates and dissolved organic impurities. Continual, online monitoring provides the greatest reliability in measurement, and new sensors from Bürkert offer a cost-effective solution to enhance water quality and reduce the time required for testing. Greg Wainhouse, industry account manager for Water Applications at Bürkert, looks at the challenges of nitrate and organic impurity monitoring...
enable a process have to ensure that nitrate levels do not adversely affect the end result, for example in textile and paper manufacture, where colour can be affected.
THE CHALLENGE OF RELIABLE TESTING
The most common source of nitrates in water is from agricultural production, with nitrates from fertiliser and manure seeping into the ground, running into the feed of boreholes, streams, natural springs, and reservoirs. Whether capitalising on the benefits of a local source for provenance and taste, like
for bottled spring water and beer, or using a private source to remove the higher cost of supply from the utilities, organisations with their own water supply take on the responsibility of testing for nitrates and organic impurities. Even for water utility companies, in water source areas susceptible to higher nitrate concentrations, they also need to be able to check quickly and accurately to ascertain whether more precise nitrate testing is required. For most organisations, the financially viable and typical nitrates test method is a periodic spot check, with a sample taken at intervals, rather than continuously. Dependent on the end users’ capabilities and facilities, samples can be tested with their own analysers, or they can be sent to a lab for analysis. To monitor organic impurity bacteria levels, the five-day jar test is the typical check for pollution of a biological oxygen demand (BOD), with a two-to-three-hour test to check
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November 2022 Instrumentation Monthly
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