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The Use of Field-Portable X-ray Fluorescence Technology in the Hazardous Waste Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

G. A. Raab ,
C. A. Kuharic ,
W. H. Cole III ,
R. E. Enwall  and
J. S. Duggan
G. A. Raab
Affiliation:
Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Company Las Vegas, NV
C. A. Kuharic
Affiliation:
Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Company Las Vegas, NV
W. H. Cole III
Affiliation:
Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Company Las Vegas, NV
R. E. Enwall
Affiliation:
Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Company Las Vegas, NV
J. S. Duggan
Affiliation:
Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Company Las Vegas, NV
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Abstract

As the Environmental Protection Agency adds ever more sites to the National Priorities List for Superfund clean-up, there is a tremendous need for a fast method of screening for contaminants. In the case of inorganics, we can apply field-portable X-ray fluorescence technology.

With commercially available field-portable X-ray fluorescence equipment using in-situ measurements we can quickly screen a site (hundreds of measurements), input the data to a portable computer, process it, and print a colored concentration isopleth map of the contaminant of interest, all in realtime.

The in-situ measurement approach pioneered by Lockheed is the key to rapid screening capability. Problems arising from particle size distribution, soil heterogeneity, and bulk density are minimized by employing site-specific standards in the construction of our calibration curves. Inherent in these site-specific standards are all the matrix problems which occur in the routine samples.

The strength of field-portable X-ray fluorescence technology is the accuracy of analysis above the quantitation limits. The difficulty in measuring low concentrations near the detection limit is the weak point of field-portable units.

NOTICE: Although this research was funded in part by the U.S. EPA through Contract 68-03-3249 to Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Company, it has not undergone Agency review and does not necessarily reflect Agency policy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Advances in X-Ray Analysis , Volume 33: Thirty-Eighth Annual Conference on Applications of X-ray Analysis, July 31 - August 4, 1989 , 1989 , pp. 629 - 637
Copyright
Copyright © International Centre for Diffraction Data 1989

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References

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