Liquid analyser and method
AssigneeAnalytical Developments Limited
InventorsMartin Horan, Seamus O'Mahony
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A liquid analyser has a reactor portion and an associated measurement portion. A sample pump is operable to deliver a liquid sample to a reactor vessel. A base pump supplies a base solution to the reactor vessel. An ozone generator supplies ozone to the reactor vessel. The liquid sample is oxidised in the reactor vessel by means of hydroxyl radicals which are generated using the base solution and ozone to reduce complex components of the liquid sample to their lowest state in solution. The oxidised sample solution is delivered to an optical detector in the measurement portion to determine the concentration of one or more selected materials such as nitrogen, phosphorous or a heavy metal in the oxidised sample solution.
Claims18
An analytical method for measuring the quantity of one or more selected components in a liquid sample comprising:
- taking a liquid sample;
- supplying the liquid sample to a reactor vessel in fluid communication with an ozone generator, using a sample pump in fluid communication with the reactor vessel;
- adding a base solution containing base having hydroxyl group from a base solution reservoir to the liquid sample using a base pump having an inlet in fluid communication with the base solution reservoir and an outlet in fluid communication with the reactor vessel;
- supplying ozone from the ozone generator to the reactor vessel, wherein the ozone is mixed with the base solution forming hydroxyl radicals, and wherein the liquid sample is oxidized by the hydroxyl radicals forming an oxidized liquid sample solution;
- flowing the oxidized liquid sample solution to a sample chamber downstream of the reactor vessel and to a delivery line connecting the sample chamber and a multicomponent detector;
- mixing the oxidised liquid sample solution with an associated reagent to convert at least one of oxidized materials in the oxidized solution to form a coloured complex prior to delivering the oxidised liquid sample solution to the multicomponent detector and analyzing the oxidised liquid sample solution, using a reagent pump having an inlet connected with a reagent reservoir and an outlet connected to the delivery line;
- flowing the oxidized liquid sample solution to the multicomponent detector comprising at least one measuring cell for receiving the oxidised liquid sample solution;
- and
- measuring the concentration of said one of the oxidized materials associated with the reagent in the oxidised liquid sample solution in the at least one measuring cell and measuring a concentration of another oxidized materials which were not associated with the reagent in the at least one measuring cell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.