Specifications for an inductively coupled plasma simultaneous multielement analysis system

Specifications are presented for those items of hardware, software, and overall system performance which are of known importance in atomic emission spectroscopy--simultaneous multielement analyses (ICP-SMA) instrument systems. Particular attention is directed to the specified data reporting and quality assurance features which are required for improving the validity and interpretability of the analytical results, and the specified background correction procedures which are necessary for accurate quantitative determinations near the limit of detection. The specification package was prepared to specify and purchase an ICP-SMA system which will provide maximum value and utility for the simultaneous determination of major, minor and trace quantities of the elements in a wide variety of sample materials. Modifications of the analytical line array specified here may be appropriate for other, more specific, analytical tasks. Budgetary realities may necessitate additional, appropriate modifications. It is anticipated, however, that the specification package presented here will have general utility as a guide in the preparation of ICP-SMA procurement packages for other laboratories and other analytical applications

Automated on-line determination of PPB levels of sodium and potassium in low-Btu coal gas and fluidized bed combustor exhaust by atomic emission spectrometry

The Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC), US Department of Energy, is involved in the development of processes and equipment for production of low-Btu gas from coal and for fluidized bed combustion of coal. The ultimate objective is large scale production of electricity using high temperature gas turbines. Such turbines, however, are susceptible to accelerated corrosion and self-destruction when relatively low concentrations of sodium and potassium are present in the driving gas streams. Knowledge and control of the concentrations of those elements, at part per billion levels, are critical to the success of both the gas cleanup procedures that are being investigated and the overall energy conversion processes. This presentation describes instrumentation and procedures developed at the Ames Laboratory for application to the problems outlined above and results that have been obtained so far at METC. The first Ames instruments, which feature an automated, dual channel flame atomic emission spectrometer, perform the sodium and potassium determinations simultaneously, repetitively, and automatically every two to three minutes by atomizing and exciting a fraction of the subject gas sample stream in either an oxyhydrogen flame or a nitrous oxide-acetylene flame. The analytical results are printed and can be transmitted simultaneously to a process control center