In-situ measurement of nitrate in soil
AssigneeB.G. Negev Technologies and Applications Ltd., At Ben-Gurion University
InventorsOfer Dahan, Shlomi Arnon, Elad Yeshno
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for measuring with the aid of light absorption spectrometry the concentration of one or more analytes in porewater in soil, the system comprising: one or more monitoring unit(s), each monitoring unit comprising a porewater sampler (1), an optical flow cell (2) with a tube connecting the liquid inlet port of said optical flow cell to said porewater sampler; and vacuum arrangement to enable extraction of porewater; at least one light source (5) for generating a light beam to be transmitted through said optical flow cell (2); and at least one detector (8) for obtaining spectral information from the beam exiting said optical flow cell. A method of measurement is also provided.
Claims19
A system for measuring with the aid of light absorption spectrometry the concentration of one or more analytes in porewater in soil, the system comprising:
- one or more monitoring unit(s), each monitoring unit comprising a porewater sampler, an optical flow cell with a tube connecting the liquid inlet port of said optical flow cell to said porewater sampler;
- and vacuum arrangement to enable extraction of porewater, said vacuum arrangement comprising a sampling cell charged with vacuum, with a tube connecting the optical flow cell's outlet port to the sampling cell;
- at least one light source for generating a light beam to be transmitted through said optical flow cell;
- and
- at least one detector for obtaining spectral information from the beam exiting said optical flow cell.
A method of quantitative in-situ and real time monitoring with the aid of light absorption spectrometry of one or more analytes in porewater, the method comprising:
- extracting porewater from soil using a porewater sampler, to produce a porewater stream;
- directing said porewater stream into an optical flow cell;
- transmitting light beam across the porewater stream flowing through the optical flow cell;
- obtaining spectral information from the beam exiting the optical flow cell to determine the concentration of one or more analytes in the porewater with the aid of a first calibration curve constructed at a first selected wavelength suitable for the chemical composition of the soil and concentration range of said analyte;
- and
- switching to a second calibration curve constructed at a different wavelength if the concentration measured is not within said concentration range associated with said first calibration curve.
A device for detecting an analyte in a plurality of liquid samples with the aid of light spectrometry, wherein the device comprises at least one light source, a plurality of sample holders and at least one detector, wherein each sample holder has a front face through which a light beam travelling from the light source via a wave guide enters said sample holder, and a rear face through which a light beam exiting the sample holder is guided to the detector, wherein an optical flow cell is used as the sample holder, the optical flow cell being provided with an optical arrangement comprising at least one of the following:
- one or more lenses mounted in the front side and/or one or more lenses mounted in the rear side of said sample holder;
- one or more deflectors and/or mirrors mounted in the front side and/or one or more deflectors and/or mirrors mounted in the rear side of said sample holder;
- wherein the optical arrangement is configured to focus the light beam traveling from the light source onto said sample holder;
- to reflect light beam exiting said sample holder back to said sample holder;
- and wherein the system further comprises one or more of spatial light modulator and/or modulators wherein each sample holder is associated with a specific code or frequency;
- the device further comprising a controller connected to a computer to assign each sample holder with said code or frequency.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.