The advancement of portable technologies in our highly mobile society has transformed numerous industries that rely on field operations. There is an ever-growing demand for technologies that provide the comforts of home in remote and extreme environments. One of the most important aspects of this is providing safe drinking water, without which, extended stays in many remote environments would prove impossible. While there are numerous technologies that provide small-scale water treatment, the issue of determining a suitable water source remains a great concern, as well as ensuring that treatment solutions are effective in providing safe drinking water.
Military operations are one of the primary industries that drive this demand. It is common to find bases located in remote locations, and certain sectors require the use of highly versatile troops that can transport and set up mobile base operations in any given environment. Often without time to dig a proper well, these operations must find surface water sources to provide drinking water for the troops, sometimes even during transport. The time to ensure a source is safe, and provide adequate treatment, can be crucial. Recently, there has been a request for technologies that can assist in providing this rapid source and treated water monitoring.
The PeCOD® COD Analyzer is a rapid water quality monitoring tool that provides a bulk measurement of organic compound concentration. It stands apart from technologies such as TOC and DOC in that it does not simply quantify the organics, but rather gives an indication of their overall reactive state. This information is more useful from a treatment perspective; dosing requirements for treatment processes are highly dependent on this reactivity. Inadequate dosing of coagulant can allow organics to make it through the treatment process without being broken down. This allows them to react with disinfection chemicals and produce carcinogenic disinfection by-products.
In addition, the PeCOD® provides an empirical measure that does not need to be correlated to each new matrix, providing accurate quality indications from any source. From an operational perspective, the PeCOD® is quick to learn and easy to operate. User-friendly software allows for one-button press sample analysis and simple data management, including correlation determination. A rugged carry case allows for portable operation in the field, with <1-minute sample prep and 3 – 5-minute sample analysis for surface waters.
The PeCOD® COD Analyzer provides an ideal solution for rapid source water and treatment monitoring and is ready for implementation in mobile military operations. See this Link for a slide summarizing the application. Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting application!
