Discharge monitoring system
OwnerDaniel J. Spandau, Wayne Gutschowinventors
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system for monitoring a concentration of volatile organic constituents in a test sample. A sparging vessel separates a volatile organic constituent sample from the test sample. A dryer dries the constituent sample to remove any vapor therein by mixing the constituent sample with a drying agent. A sorbent trap adsorbs the volatile constituents from the drying agent and concentrates the purged constituents. A microprocessor controlled director valve selectively directs the constituent sample from the dryer to the sorbent trap and from the sorbent trap to an organic vapor detector for determining the concentration of volatile constituents and for generating an electrical signal proportional to the total concentration of the volatile constituents in the sample.
Claims24
A discharge monitoring system located at an outdoor contaminated site, said system connected to a means for cleaning contaminated material from the contaminated site for monitoring a concentration of volatile organic constituents in a test sample obtained from said means for cleaning the contaminated site, comprising:
- means for connecting the discharge monitoring system to the means for cleaning the contaminated site and for obtaining the test sample;
- sparging means for separating a volatile organic constituent sample from the test sample;
- means for drying the volatile organic constituent sample to remove any water therein by mixing the volatile organic constituents with a drying agent;
- means for separating the volatile organic constituents from the drying agent and for concentrating the separated volatile constituents;
- means for detecting the concentration of the volatile organic constituents and for generating an electrical signal proportional to the total concentration and type of the volatile organic constituents in the constituent sample;
- and
- microprocessor control means for controlling the operation of the monitoring system and automatically calibrating the system prior to monitoring the test sample, wherein a purified blank liquid sample is produced by the sparging means during the automatic calibration of the system.
A method of monitoring a concentration of volatile organic constituents in a test sample obtained from an outdoor contaminated site with a monitoring system located at the outdoor contaminated site and connected to means for cleaning contaminated material from the contaminated site, comprising the steps of:
- connecting the monitoring system to the means for cleaning the contaminated site;
- obtaining a test sample of the contaminated material from the contaminated site;
- automatically calibrating the monitoring system to produce a purified, liquid blank sample in a sparging vessel of said monitoring system and using said liquid blank sample to calibrate the system prior to analysis of said test sample;
- separating a sample of volatile organic constituents from the test sample in said sparging vessel;
- drying the volatile organic constituent sample with a drying agent to remove any vapor in the constituent sample;
- separating the volatile constituents from the drying agent to concentrate the volatile organic constituents of the constituent sample;
- detecting the concentration of the volatile organic constituents by detecting means which generates an electrical signal proportional to the concentration and type of the volatile organic constituents in the constituent sample;
- and
- determining if the volatile organic constituents concentration of said test sample is within a predetermined value generated by the microprocessor control means of the monitoring system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.