Gaiasafe Passive Collectors for the analysis of explosives in sea water
Dr. Rainer Haas
gaiasafe gmbH, Stadtwaldstrasse 45a, D-35037 Marburg, Germany
Tel.: 49-6421-93084; Fax:
49-6421-93073; email: office@gaiasafe.de
Description of the Passive Collectors:
The gaiasafe passive collector
consists a paper like arangement of different sorption active fibres. As paper
sheets they are prefered for water analysis applications. It is necessary to
prevent the Passive Collectors from physical destruction by fluid motion and to
keep them form stable by fixing them within fluid permeable bags.
Passive Collectors are placed into
the ground water, river or seawage. After the collection time of four weeks
they are taken off. Occasionally after drying they are sent to the laboratory
for analysis.
A lot of
compounds can be enriched by the gaiasafe Passive Collectors:
- Metals (for example Pb, Cu, Ni,
Hg, Cr, Al)
- Metalloids (for example As, Sb,
Se)
- Anions (for example S2-,
PO4 3-)
- organic compounds (for example
nitro aromatic compounds (explosives), BTEX, other aromatic compounds,
hydrocarbons, aromatic amines, halogen organic compounds, phenols, benzoic
acids etc.).
gaiasafe
Passive Collectors have important advantages over fluid sampling methods:
- no deep limits of sampling
positions when sampling of deep aquifers (for example sampling at ocean floor
depth)
- low expenditure (for example
ground water sampling from ground water measuring wells)
- minimum expenditures for sample
transportation, sample conservation, sample cooling and sample storage
- enrichment of trace contaminants
from huge volumes during collection periods up to 3 months
- detection of contamination impacts
or contamination incidents occuring during sampling periods, e.g. in waste
water channels
- detecting the undisturbed
groundwater aquifer at predetermined positions with high precision
- possibility of gaining deep
oriented contaminant profiles by positioning a plurality of Passive Collectors
- possibility of storage Passive
Collectors for later analysis.
- deep oriented sampling from ground
water measuring wells
- sampling of undisturbed ground
water aquifer
- sampling under problematic or difficult
circumstances (e.g. from small diameter ground water measuring wells or from
very deep measuring positions in the open sea)
- enrichment of trace contaminants
- Passive Collectors as valid piece
of evidence for contamination incidents occuring during sampling period
- Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) from
water samples for determining contaminant concentration, e.g. in 1 l water
- tested in the open sea (baltic and
northern sea).
Gaiasafe Passive Collectors are
protected by the European Patent No. 1115469 and the European Patent No.
1127274.
Gaiasafe Passive Collectors have
been tested within the different water environments (waste water, ground water,
surface and drinking water, open sea) in Germany and some other countries like
France, Switzerland, Austria, Belarus, Tadschikistan, Brasil and Cote dŽIvoire.
They have been validied for
explosives and related compounds during a four year scientific project,
benified by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the years 2003 to
2007. Since 2008 we analyze the explosives contamination in the baltic sea
after controlled explosion of old munition from WW II in order of the
Environmental Ministry of Schleswig-Holstein (Germany). We showed, that only
with the Passive Collectors it is possible to detect the small traces of
explosives in the open sea.
The gaiasafe Passive Collectors are
avaiable only from gaiasafe GmbH for a price of 20 Euros per item.