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Environmental
Making sure that the food we eat, the water we drink or the air we breathe is safe – you can depend on GERSTEL. Through the efforts of the GERSTEL applications team and scientists like you, GERSTEL has made significant contributions in the area of Environmental Analysis.
GERSTEL provides a wide range of products and integrated solutions for environmental analysis using GC-MS and LC-MS systems.
Air
Air, a fundamental necessity for all life, is unfortunately contaminated with pollutants such as particulate matter, CO2, and nitrogen oxide. This global health risk of air pollution is a matter of utmost importance.
The escalating risks of air contamination, from PFAS contamination to VOCs, VVOCs, and SVOCs, are causing global concerns. We are here to provide versatile systems and technologies proven to support your analytical tasks and help you in projects such as assessing and mitigating air quality risks near industrial sites, airports, and areas with historical PFAS contamination.
According to the Federal Emissions Control Act’s definition, air pollution is any change to the natural composition of the air. A harmful substance is “any substance present in the air that can damage human health or the environment.” As part of environmental protection measures, there are statutory requirements to assess and evaluate air quality, particularly regarding health and safety concerns.
GERSTEL thermal desorption systems transfer the analytes from air samples collected on sorbent tubes to the gas chromatograph (GC) for analysis and evaluation. These air samples can be taken from different sources such as outside air (in urban or countryside areas), indoor air, air at workplaces, and commercial and industrial sources. In addition, thermal desorption systems can also be used to examine particles collected on filters for potential emissions through thermal extra.
Water
No living organism on Earth can survive without water. Analysis methods to detect traces of organic contaminants in water samples usually include extraction and enrichment stages to adhere to the limits of detection (LODs) stipulated in the regulations.
Liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) is a widely used technique for extracting analytes from water. However, it is labor intensive and requires large amounts of organic solvent, making it less environmentally friendly.
An alternative extraction method is solid-phase extraction (SPE), which consumes significantly less solvent. However, this method is also labor intensive, which can be disadvantageous in terms of recovery and repeatability.
Solid phase extraction performed automatically with the LCTech FREESTYLE System eliminates these disadvantages. The system is versatile and can be adapted to individual requirements and automates the necessary sample preparation steps.
Miniaturized extraction techniques are used to achieve lower detection limits, drastically reduce solvent use, and accommodate small sample quantities. Examples are the GERSTEL Twister® and Thin Film TF-SPME.
These more environmentally friendly, solvent-free techniques enable the extraction and concentration of the analytes in one step. The analytes collected with the extraction device are directly transferred to the GC column using gentle thermal desorption that does not require dilution or splitting of the analytes.