| CPC G01N 33/1826 (2013.01) [G01N 35/00871 (2013.01); G01N 33/184 (2024.05); G01N 2035/00356 (2013.01); G01N 2035/00881 (2013.01); G01N 2035/0097 (2013.01); G01N 2035/1062 (2013.01); Y02A 20/20 (2018.01)] | 26 Claims |
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1. A method of estimating future build-up of at least one disinfection by-product (DBP) in water from a water supply, said method comprising:
controlling an actuator on an intermittent basis to automatically draw a sample of water from the water supply;
automatically transferring the sample to a vessel and heating the sample for a period of time, where both a temperature of the heating and the period of time of the heating are selected so as to simulate aging of the sample according to a selective age that has been correlated in advance with expected formation of the at least one DBP, given a normative amount of disinfection agent present in the water, and where the heating of the sample is to cause deliberate formation of the at least one DBP in the sampled water from un-neutralized disinfection agent present in the sampled water;
following heating, passing the sample through a transfer mechanism to extract the at least one DBP and to transfer the extracted at least one DBP to a second medium of known volume;
transferring the second medium of known volume to a measurement device, and measuring concentration of the at least one DBP in the second medium with the measurement device to generate at least one result; and
estimating the future build-up dependent on the at least one result;
wherein
the measuring of the concentration comprises initiating a reaction in which a pyridine-based substance is added to the second medium of known volume, measuring a color that is dependent on the concentration, and identifying the concentration dependent on the measured color, and
the controlling, the automatically transferring and heating, the passing, the transferring to the second medium and measuring and the estimating are each automated steps of a sequence for each sample performed on the intermittent basis under the control of one or more processors.
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