Canister Sampling System for Soil Gas Analysis

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Jones Environmental was established as Jones Environmental Forensics in 2007 by Jim Jones and Janet Jones as a result of an increasing demand for forensic consultancy and analysis.

An industrial unit in Deeside was leased and analytical equipment including GC-FID and GC-MS was purchased to undertake forensic analysis.  By 2008 although the forensic analysis was thriving, a demand for more routine work was apparent and Jones Environmental Laboratory was established to cater for a client base who required a higher than average level of technical advice and project management.

Jones Environmental Laboratory was awarded ISO 17025 accreditation in January 2008 and MCERTS in June 2008 and currently operates from a secure new, 13,000 square foot premises near to the M56 and employ 42 staff, of which 80% are graduates.

In mid-2009 the company was approached by a customer who was looking for a UK laboratory to undertake an urgent soil gas analysis project using the USEPA method, TO15. This analysis called for the analysis of samples taken in passivated steel canisters and had a stringent LOD requirement.

Jim Jones. Managing Director explained:

There was no laboratory in the UK set-up to do this task, and it was clear to me that if we could do it, then we would be adding a powerful new capability to our arsenal. I discussed this with Anatune and they were able to come-up with a solution based upon instrumentation from Entech Instruments. There were some potential pittfalls however. For one thing, it was just not possible for us to have liquid nitrogen in our laboratory and so this meant that, we had to install the very first Entech 7150 delivered anywhere in the World - since this new instrument could be run using liquid carbon dioxide as a coolant.

The project required very careful planning, as the potential problems were significant. This was a product that was new to Jones, new to Anatune and, as the first off the production line, new to Entech too. Timescales were very tight as Jones Environmental's customer was working to a tight deadline too and significant delays could have derailed the whole project.

Andrew Golby, Anatune's Account Manager was responsible for co-ordinating the project:

For Anatune and Entech (as well as Jones Environmental) this was a project that demanded 100% commitment and absolute determination to succeed. The challenges to be overcome were not just technical, but organisational and logistical as well. Entech's president and founder, Dan Cardin, flew in from California to oversee the installation and to provide training on the brand-new 7150 pre-concentrator, which is an indication of the degree of commitment all round.

The system in now running, has been successfully validated and Jones are now acredited for this analysis. This system gives capabilities that, currently, no other environmental lab in the UK can match, not only is the laboratory fully equipped to analyse samples to USEPA TO 15, but we can also perform ultra high sensitivity analysis of landfill gas samples from Tedlar bags/

Jim Jones commented:

Anatune's tech support is very good. They installed the instrumentation at the end of August and were were able to get good data immediately. this helped us get the TO-15 method acredited by the end of November. Three months from install to acreditation - that good going by any standards!