Innovation and timely testing prevent plant shutdown
Innovation and timely testing prevent plant shutdown
Environmental NEWS - Spring 2010
Innovation and timely testing prevent plant shutdown
Principal chemist Rick Shober utilizes a Thermo TSQ Quantum
Access LC/MS/MS to solve a client’s problem on a rush project.
As Lancaster Laboratories begins its 50th year in business, it’s interesting to note that some of the factors that drove its founder still exist to today. When Dr. Earl Hess founded the Lab, he envisioned being a “chemist in private practice;” someone who could come up with innovative, analytical solutions for local businesses. While Lancaster Labs’ clients are now global instead of local, their need for fast solutions to analytical challenges still exists, as recently demonstrated when a large industrial client experienced a malfunction in their purified water processing.
A leak in the system caused the purified water to become contaminated with 2-diethylaminoethanol, which is used for conditioning processed steam. The client took action to correct the problem, but they needed to know the extent of the contamination in the water system quickly so they could get their production back on track and avoid a prolonged plant shutdown. Since the compound is not a typical pollutant, no existing environmental test methods could be identified. However, the client was familiar with Lancaster Labs through work with its Pharmaceutical departments, and they placed a call for assistance to Lancaster Labs on a Thursday. Lancaster Labs’ Specialty Services Team was established to develop new test methods, using existing technology to meet client specific needs. And chemists within this team answered the call by evaluating the contaminant and immediately proposing a potential technique for quantifying 2-diethylaminoethanol.
The client accepted the proposal and the wheels for providing answers on a rush basis were set in motion. Sampling bottles were supplied to the manufacturing site on the same day because of the close proximity of Lancaster Labs’ West Coast service center. While the samples were enroute by courier across the country to Lancaster, PA, chemists at Lancaster Labs were developing and validating a method that would detect the contaminant at concentrations in the low parts per billion range. A source of analytical standard was located and a Lancaster Labs driver was dispatched to retrieve it so that development work could start immediately, rather than wait for next day delivery.
The proposed method involved direct aqueous injection onto a Thermo TSQ Quantum Access, a triple quadrapole liquid chromatograph/mass spectrometer (LC/MS/MS). By Friday, the day after the initial phone call, the instrument was set up, and the standard was being used to verify that the proposed method could reliably detect the contaminant at concentrations as low as 5 ppb—a level that was 10 times lower than the minimum detection limit needed by the client. During that weekend, analysts used the newly validated method to analyze the samples, which included one at the source to confirm the leak and others from various points of use to determine the extent of contamination. By Monday, the results were calculated and reported to the client. They were relieved to learn that their remediation efforts were successful and manufacturing operations could continue without further treatments or delay.
In this case, the expertise of Lancaster Labs’ analysts and the availability of state-of-the-art instrumentation were employed to provide an innovative solution to a client’s analytical challenge in a timeframe that met their needs. While Dr. Hess may not have had an LC/MS/MS 50 years ago, this kind of customized service is exactly what he envisioned.
For more information on method development by the Specialty Services Team, please call Chuck Neslund at 717-656-2300, ext. 1819 or email cneslund@lancasterlabs.com