gaiasafe Passive Collectors for Water and Gas Analysis
Dr. Rainer Haas
gaiasafe gmbH, Stadtwaldstrasse 45a, D-35037 Marburg, Germany
Tel.: 49-6421-93084; Fax: 49-6421-93073; email: office@gaiasafe.de
The gaiasafe passive collector consists a paper like arangement of different sorption active fibers. As paper sheets they are prefered for water analysis applications, as wool they are prefered for gas analysis applications.It is necessary to prevent passive samplers from physical destruction by fluid motion and to keep them form stable they are seam fixed within fluid permeable bags.
Passive collectors are placed into the fluid or liquid to be analyzed for example for ground water, river, seawage or waste air. After the collection time of about four weeks they are taken the fluid off. Occasionally after drying they are sent to the laboratory for analysis.
Compounds which can be enriched by the gaiasafe Passive Collectors
- Metals (for example Pb, Cu, Ni, Hg, Cr, Al)
- Metalloids (for example As, Sb, Se)
- Anions (for example S2-, PO4 3-)
- organic compounds (for example BTEX-aromatics, hydrocarbons, nitro aromatic compounds, aromatic amines, halogen organic compounds)
gaiasafe Passive Collectors have important advantages over fluid sampling methods (water and gas sampling)
- low expenditure (for example ground water sampling from ground water measuring wells)
- minimum expenditures for sample transporting, sample conservation, sample cooling and sample storage)
- enrichment of trace contaminants from huge fluid volumes by extended collection periods
- detection of contamination impacts or contamination incidents occuring during sampling periods
- detecting the undisturbed groundwater aquifer at predetermined positions with high precision
- possibility of gaining deep oriented contaminant profiles by positioning a plurality of Passive Collectors
- possibility of storage passive samplers as reserve samples for later analysis
- no deep limits of sampling positions when sampling of deep aquifers (for example sampling at ocean floor depth).
Preferred operational areas for gaiasafe Passive Collectors
- deep oriented sampling from ground water measuring wells
- sampling from the undisturbed ground water aquifer
- sampling under problematic or difficult circumstances (for example from small diameter ground water measuring wells, from very deep measuring positions)
- enrichment of trace contaminants
- Passive Collectors as valid piece of evidence for contamination incidents occuring during sampling period (for example in seawage, surface water, waste air)
- Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) from water samples for determining contaminant concentration, e.g. in 1 l water.
State of research developement and Test
gaiasafe Passive Collectors have been tested within the different water environments (waste water, ground water, surface water and drinking water) in Germany and Belarus. Additional investigations are still running in Switzerland, India and Brasil.