QROS provides accurate and immediate low cost analysis for highways engineers, contaminated land practitioners, waste management operators and regulatory authorities, in a laboratory or on site. QROS has a variety of techniques that can rapidly and accurately identify and tell you the quantities present of the following contaminants:

  • A wide range of Hydrocarbons, including coal tars, bitumen, GRO, DRO, BTEX, PAH, TPH, Waste Oils, Fuel Oils (Petrol, Diesel, Jet Fuel etc,) Crude Oils, Lubricating Oils etc. The QED can even distinguish between different types of Jet Fuel.

  • Poly Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs ): Coal tar and other tars, Creosotes and Combustion of Organic Compounds, Sum of the 16 PAHs, total C10 – C35 Aromatics and Benzo-a-Pyrene

  • Heavy Metals including Cadmium, Mercury and Chrome

  • Chlorinated Solvents

  • Phenols

  • Ammonia/Ammonium

  • Cyanide

  • Sulphate

  • Chloride

  • Nitrate

  • Poly Chlorinated Biphenyl (PCBs)

  • pH levels

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New 2020 Environment Agency Guidelines regarding On Site Analysis

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Coal Tar and Hydrocarbon Testing

The New Generation of On Site Analysis: the QED Hydrocarbon Analyser from QROS  is the only analyser either in the laboratory or on site that in a single analysis can reliably identify the hydrocarbon and give quantitative data for all the parameters needed to obtain the hazard classification for soils containing oily waste, coal tars or bitumens. The QED gives you the best quality results for BTEX, GRO, DRO, TPH, sum16 PAH and BaP in a single 2 second test from under £10 per sample. The new coal tar test is even quicker. Encouraged by the UK Environment Agency for regulatory purposes, now recommended by the US Department of Transportation

Heavy Metals

On-site heavy metals analysis is accomplished using either X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) or Anodic Stripping Volammetry (ASV.)

XRF

The Olympus Vanta XRF analyser from QROS can detect Lead (Pb), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), Arsenic (As), Mercury (Hg), Cadmium (Cd), Nickel (Ni), Chromium (Cr), Selenium (Se) etc, as well as the lighter elemants such as Chrome, Magnesium and Aluminium. Analysis by XRF is a very rapid technique, typically generating results in 30 seconds. The QROS method takes the average of 3 separate analyses on a sample to obtain a more representative result for the sample. This increases the actual per sample analysis time to approximately 3 minutes, including sample preparation.

ASV

Cadmium. QROS uses a technique called Anodic Stripping Voltammetry for this metal if it is suspected. ASV can easily detect 1mg/kg in soil and as low as 10 microgram/litre in water.

Other Analysis Methods

Chlorinated hydrocarbons (organochlorides) have an extensive range of applications and are frequently found on contaminated sites. Chlorinated hydrocarbons are used predominantly as solvents and have historically been used as industrial degreasers, dry cleaning solvents, anaesthetic agents and as refrigerants. They are colourless, volatile liquids with a moderately sweet aroma and partially soluble in but denser than water. They are the most common DNAPL (Dense Non Aqueous Phase Liquid.).

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CESA2017
QROS environment agency award winner