Autoanalyser Helps Protect Production Equipment

An automated segmented flow analyser, the AA3 from Seal Analytical, is being used at BASF’s manufacturing facility at Ludwigshafen in Germany, to protect manufacturing equipment from corrosion or chemical attack from potential impurities in demineralised water, boiler feed water and steam condensate.

Roland Bruenn, who is responsible for the analysis of process and environmental samples, said: “We take samples continuously, twenty four hours per day, and typically test 30 to 50 samples per day for silica, ammonium and iron. However, the AA3 has the facility to test hundreds of samples per day so we have the ability to increase the work rate if necessary.”

Many of the chemical reactions that take place at the plant are exothermic and water is used for cooling purposes which produces steam that is utilised in two ways. Firstly, it is used to generate electricity which improves energy efficiency, lowers the plant’s carbon footprint and saves money. Secondly, the heated water and steam is used as a heat source for other production processes.

It is vitally important that the heated water is not contaminated because this could seriously affect both the plant and the production processes. The reliability of the analytical equipment is therefore a high priority.

A key feature of the AA3 is a low detection limit for the measured species and the Ludwigshafen laboratory results typically range between 2µg/l to 5000 µg/l. The analyses follow the DIN EN ISO 16264 standard for silica and the DIN EN ISO 11732 standard for ammonium, and accuracy is regularly checked by parallel manual tests.

Looking forward, the AA3 is being replaced by a new QuAAtro, which is the latest segmented flow analyser with ultra-low detection limits and high reproducibility. The AA3 will then be moved to a different laboratory and utilised for testing ammonia in wastewater.