On-line monitoring of wastewater using ion chromatography

Abstract

Ion Chromatography (IC) has been used for the on-line determination of anions and cations in a variety of process streams. On-line monitoring of process and wastewater streams optimizes the control of treatment methods by providing early indications of problems that could increase discharges of hazardous compounds to the environment. It is important for the immediate detection and remediation of process upsets in critical streams. The waste flow to the Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is processed before discharge and requires monitoring. Process chromatography is used to monitor the trends of contaminants in real time. The purpose of this study is to develop an automated on-line IC procedure for the simultaneous determination of anions in LANL wastewater.