A simple UV spectrophotometric procedure for the survey of industrial sewage system

Abstract

A simple UV spectrophotometric procedure is proposed for the survey of an industrial sewage system. Simple, fast and reliable, this technique has been first designed for natural and waste water. It is based on the assumption that any UV spectrum of a sample can be decomposed by using a set of reference spectra. The main application is the determination of specific compounds such as nitrate or anionic surfactants (expressed as DBS) or the estimation of global parameters such as COD, TOC or TSS. Another interest can be found in process control or alarm detection. Based on the UV light absorption by all unsaturated compounds and particularly anthropogenic organic matter, the method is obviously limited by the nature of organics. So, its use for industrial application needs a good knowledge of wastewater composition -and variation- for the choice of the dedicated spectra library. This paper will present the industrial application of UV spectrophotometry including the methods for the definition of the spectra libraries. Its application in the wastewater survey of a large petrochemical site, located in the South of France, is also presented.