Systems and methods for determining carbon system parameters of water
AssigneeUniversity of South Florida
InventorRobert Howard Byrne
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In one embodiment, determining carbon system parameters of water includes measuring the pH of a first subsample of the water using a spectrophotometer, adding nitric acid as a titrant to a second subsample of the water to obtain a titrated subsample, measuring a concentration of added nitric acid in the titrated subsample using a spectrophotometer, measuring the pH of the titrated subsample using a spectrophotometer, and calculating one or more unknown carbon system parameters using the pH of the first subsample, the pH of the titrated subsample, and the concentration of added nitric acid of the titrated subsample.
Claims19
A method for determining carbon system parameters of water, the method comprising:
- measuring a pH of a first subsample of the water using a spectrophotometer;
- adding nitric acid as a titrant to a second subsample of the water to obtain a titrated subsample;
- measuring a concentration of added nitric acid in the titrated subsample using a spectrophotometer;
- measuring a pH of the titrated subsample using a spectrophotometer;
- and
- calculating total alkalinity of the water using the pH of the first subsample, the pH of the titrated subsample, and the concentration of added nitric acid in the titrated subsample.
A system for determining carbon system parameters of water, the system comprising:
- a spectrophotometer configured to measure light absorbances of liquids;
- and
- a computing device in communication with the spectrophotometer, the computing device including a non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores a carbon system parameter program configured to:
- receive spectrophotometric absorbance measurements indicative of a pH of an untitrated subsample of the water,
- receive spectrophotometric absorbance measurements indicative of a pH of a subsample of the water that has been titrated with nitric acid,
- receive spectrophotometric absorbance measurements indicative of a concentration of added nitric acid in the titrated subsample,
- determine a pH value for each subsample and a concentration of added nitric acid in the titrated subsample from the spectrophotometric absorbance measurements, and
- calculate total alkalinity of the water using the pH values and the concentration of added nitric acid in the titrated subsample of the water.
A computer-readable medium that stores a carbon system parameter program, the program being configured to:
- receive spectrophotometric absorbance measurements indicative of a pH of an untitrated subsample of water,
- receive spectrophotometric absorbance measurements indicative of a pH of a subsample of the water that has been titrated with nitric acid,
- receive spectrophotometric absorbance measurements indicative of a concentration of added nitric acid in the titrated subsample,
- determine a pH value for each subsample and a concentration of added nitric acid in the titrated subsample from the spectrophotometric absorbance measurements, and
- calculate total alkalinity of the water using the pH values and the concentration of added nitric acid in the titrated subsample of the water.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.