Sitelab Corporation - Soil Test Kits

Sitelab provides portable analyzers to measure the concentrations of petroleum hydrocarbons in soil, sediment and water on-site using Ultra Violet Fluorescence (UVF) technology. Sitelab's instrumentation is manufactured by Turner Designs Hydrocarbons Instruments, the world's leading provider for oil-in-water fluorescence technology.

Samples collected during environmental site assessments and remediation are extracted in solvent using disposable test kits and then tested on the instrument, which is fitted with optical filters that can separately measure different aromatic hydrocarbon fractions from one another, including gasoline range hydrocarbons (GRO, BTEX), diesel and oil range hydrocarbons (DRO, TPH) and Poly Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs).

The equipment is easy to operate and each test takes less than five minutes to perform. Detection limits are in the low ppb range, which varies depending on which calibration kit and instrument is used.

Ultra violet fluorescence analyzer applications

Customers include environmental contractors, consultants, engineers, and geologists performing site investigations, soil excavation, groundwater and bioremediation monitoring, tank pulls, vertical profiling LNAPL plumes, cleaning up manufactured gas plants, power plants and Brownfield sites.

Environmental benefits of Sitelab's UVF technology

Sitelab's UVF technology is a very rugged and versatile tool. It can be used to test soil, sediment or water and test for a large number of different types of petroleum contaminants, including gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, heating oils, crude oil, waste oils, coal tars and coal ash.

Hydrocarbon fingerprinting is also possible, to help determine the type or age of contamination.

Sitelab's accuracy, speed and low cost per sample allows customers to delineate contaminated sites much more thoroughly, while minimizing the number of samples sent off-site for lab confirmation. Savings in disposal costs, treatment, time and labour are also achieved.

EPA approved field measurement device for TPH in soil

Sitelab test results directly correlate to conventional laboratory methods using GC instrumentation, including EPA method 8015-GRO and DRO, EPA method 8270 for total PAHs, as well as EPA method 418 and 1664 gravimetric for measuring crude oil, waste oil and lubricating oils.

The US EPA evaluated Sitelab's technology for measuring TPH in soil against five other leading manufactures. EPA reported the following:

"The UVF-3100A exhibited the following desirable characteristics of a field TPH measurement device:

• Good accuracy
• Good precision
• High-sample throughput
• Low measurement costs
• Ease of use

Despite some of the limitations observed during the demonstration, the demonstration findings collectively indicated that the UVF-3100A is a reliable field measurement device for TPH in soil."