Chemical industry
We observe a foam which cause problems. What could it be?
It could be protein matter from microbial activity. A single analysis of the liquified foam will clarify this. A few milliliters of sample is sufficient
We produce a chemical and have an impurity which could be an educt but we cannot measure it in this matrix.
If product and educt differ in retention times sufficiently then we should be able to identfy and quantfy the educt.
We have higher conductivity in a return condensate. What could it be?
If we get a list of all chemicals under suspicion we should be able to identify the chemcal.
Examples
Screening of technical waters for water-soluble organics down to the ppb concentration range.
Virtually any organic compound which does not adsorb too strongly with the hydrophilic chromatographic phase can be quantified on the basis of organic carbon and characterised by retention time and additional UV- and nitrogen detectors.
Process condensates may contain organic impurities from various production sites.
With LC-OCD the heterogeneity and concentration of such impurities can be determined and – after comparison with suspect contaminants – assigned to specific components.
Pharma industry
TOC in our aqua purificata is well within specification. Can I be sure that all residual DOC is natural or does it contain compounds from water treatment?
There is a specific compound eluting a 79 min. with 35 ppb C which is most likely anthropogenic. It is suggested to analyse all steps of treatment with
LC-OCD.
Can we check that our active ingredient is absent in peripheral production environment? DOC in swab extracts is very high due to omnipresent fructose.
Compound under suspicion does not relate to all responses we find in chromatogram. Thus compound is absent (< 5 ppb).
Examples
While the target value of DOC (500 ppb) is easily met by producers, the qualitative composition may be of interest.
Here, WFI A contains urea and ammonium.
For WFI B the situation is similar but concentrations are lower.
Swab tests are often used to control the absence of active ingredients in the production environment.
In this case the swab extract of a canteen floor showed no indications for some specific active ingredients to be present (< 5 ppb).
