In-situ measurement of nitrate in soil
AssigneeB.G. Negev Technologies and Applications Ltd., At Ben-Gurion University
InventorsOfer DAHAN, Shlomi ARNON, Elad YESHNO
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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
1) 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;
- 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.
13) 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.
19) 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 the optical flow cell is provided with an optical arrangement comprising at least one of the following:
- one or more lenses mounted in the front and/or rear side of said sample holder;
- one or more deflectors and/or mirrors mounted in the front and/or 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 control unit connected to a computer to assign each sample holder with said code or frequency.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.