Technology Verification Program Verification
Areas |
||
Decision Support
Software Systems What it is: Decision Support Software (DSS) systems are computer software packages that integrate environmental data and simulation models into a framework for making site characterization, monitoring, and cleanup decisions (e.g., where to sample, cost/benefit analysis of additional or reduced sampling, and human and ecological risk analysis as a function of cleanup level). An effective DSS package should integrate, analyze, and present environmental information to assist a project manager in developing a cost-effective, defensible, cleanup/monitoring strategy. When/where demonstrated:
Who participated:
Reports will be available in October 1999 |
||
Soil/Soil Gas
Sampling Technologies What it is: The technologies within this category are all field-deployable and provide for sampling of soil and soil gas for screening, measurement, and characterization of volatile and semi-volatile contaminants. Some technologies also cover metals. The techniques include: two samplers advanced by direct push techniques; a hand-operated percussive soil sampler; and two soil gas absorbers. When/where demonstrated:
Who participated:
|
||
PCB Analysis
Technologies What it is: The technologies within this category are all field-deployable and provide for screening, measurement, and characterization of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination. The techniques include: quantification of PCB concentrations in soil, dielectric fluid, and surface wipe samples; immunoassay (colorimetric analysis); and on-site gas chromatograph analysis. When/where demonstrated:
Who participated:
|
||
Wellhead Monitoring
for Volatile Organic Compounds What it is: The technologies within this category address a broad spectrum of characterization and monitoring needs encountered in local and regional groundwater monitoring programs. Each fulfills a specific characterization or monitoring role. Many of the technologies complement the capabilities of others in the category. The technologies demonstrated include a sensor providing real-time detection of TCE and other trihalomethanes, field portable gas chromatograph/mass spectrometers, and a multi-gas photoacoustic spectroscopy unit. When/where demonstrated:
Who participated:
|
||
Field Portable
X-Ray Fluorescence (FPXRF) What it is: FPXRF is a site-screening procedure using a small portable instrument that addresses the need for a rapid turnaround, low-cost method for on-site analysis of inorganic contaminants. By bombarding a sample with energy, the instrument causes an electronic instability. As the instability relaxes to a more stable energy level, X-ray fluorescence is emitted. The detector senses and counts this spectrum of radiation and identifies the atom. The FPXRF instrument can quantify 18 of the 24 elements on EPA's Inorganic Target Analyte List. Typical site surveys using this technique take about 3 days rather than the traditional 20-45. When/where demonstrated:
Who participated:
|
||
Cone
Penetrometer/Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) What it is: A field screening method that couples a fiber optic-based chemical sensor system to a truck-mounted cone penetrometer. As the penetrometer probe is pushed into the ground, sensors in its tip utilize LIF. The sensor issues a pulsed laser coupled with an optical detector to make fluorescence measurements via optical fibers. The sensors detect petroleum hydrocarbons from their fluorescent response to excitation by ultraviolet light passing to the soil through a window in the tip of the probe. This fluorescent signal is collected by the probe and carried back up the penetrometer rod for real time analysis. When/where demonstrated:
Who participated:
|
||
Portable Gas
Chromatograph/ Mass Spectrometers (GC/MS) What it is: GC/MS is the EPA recommended method for the analysis of volatile and semivolatile organic compounds. This proven analytical technique identifies and quantifies organic compounds on the basis of molecular weight, characteristic fragmentation patterns, and retention time. Until recently, it was not feasible to bring the GC/MS instrument to a hazardous waste site because of its size and weight, the need for strict control of temperature and humidity, and the effect of vibration during transport. Mobile/field-portable GC/MS is anticipated to become a major technology for field analysis of these contaminants in the 1990s. When/where demonstrated:
Who participated:
|
||
This page last updated on |