SPECIALLY COLLECTED PAPERS
Shimadzu Review 75[1・2] (2018.7)
Abstract
As an indicator of the amount organic matter contained in water, chemical oxygen demand (COD) is used for lakes, marine areas, etc. and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) for rivers. These methods involve chemical or biological oxidization and measurement, but there are issues such as samples not being completely oxidized.
Since May 2003, the TOC (Total Organic Carbon) method, which fully oxidizes and measures all the organic matter in water, began to be used instead of the consumption of potassium permanganate (a COD equivalent), as the Water Supply Act water quality standard. Among researchers in environmental research organizations, there is a trend to examine TOC as an indicator since it can directly measure the amount of carbon that becomes organic pollution in environmental water such as lakes, oceans and rivers in the same way as in as tap water, and this move is starting to become mainstream.
However, when measuring environmental water in lakes and rivers, measurements that include suspended particles and plankton in the water must be made, and it has been pointed out that there are TOC measurement issues not found in tap water measurements. This paper describes the key requirements for TOC meters for environmental water measurement, and introduces a TOC meter which is best for such measurements.
Keywords: Total Organic Carbon, TOC, Environmental water, Suspension, Plankton
1Environmental Business Unit, Analytical & Measuring Instruments Division, Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan
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