New TOC Analyzer Uses Supercritical Water Oxidation Technique
Expanding GE’s capabilities for process, environmental and wastewater analysis, the Sievers InnovOx On-Line Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Analyzer will allow users to analyze challenging water samples on a routine basis without requiring excessive preventive maintenance.
Monitoring the levels of TOC in the water is an important step for industrial users to control processes that are critical to their operations and to comply with regulations.
The product, designed by GE Power & Water's analytical instruments unit, offers increased uptime and instrument reliability for the petrochemical, petroleum, pulp and paper and food and beverage markets, as well as environmental organizations and municipalities.
The analyzer uses a Supercritical Water Oxidation (SCWO) technique that offers enhanced reliability, greater ease of use and lower maintenance than other TOC analyzers available today, according to GE. SCWO has historically been used to treat large volumes of aqueous waste streams, sludges and contaminated soils. GE is the first company to use this technique in a commercially available TOC analyzer.
The first commercial application for the new analyzer is monitoring seawater in Taiwan. The seawater, which contains about 3 percent sodium chloride, is used as industrial process water, and both incoming and outgoing water streams need to be monitored for environmental protection. One of the main sources of contamination can be hydrocarbons coming from a petrochemical refining process.