Use of EQuan Orbitrap HRAM LC-MS to Fulfill the Requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive’s Chemical Investigation Programme Phase 3 (CIP3)

The Chemical Investigations Programme was established by the UK Water Industry and UK Water Industry Research in response to emerging legislation on surface water quality. The delivery of CIP3 will improve the understanding of waste water works discharging to coastal and transitional water bodies, reduce uncertainties with regards to specific substances and the effectiveness of removal processes as well as recognising the additional complexity of emerging issues.

Key to delivery is the trace-level analysis of substances of emerging interest as identified by the UK Environment Agency as of prioritised interest in waste water influents and effluents. The list contains a number of pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals as well as legacy and emerging PFAS compounds.

The trace-level quantitation and validation of these targets using on-line (EQuan Max™) solid-phase extraction coupled to a Thermo Scientific™ Q Exactive™ Focus Hybrid Quadrupole-Orbitrap™ Mass Spectrometer to will be discussed.

Presenter: John Quick (Principal Scientist, ALS Environmental, Coventry UK)

John has gained vast experience through over thirty years working in the public and private sectors related to environmental water quality. Always leading with foresight and innovation, John was one of the first to adopt HRAM technology for the targeted analysis of contaminants in environmental waters and more recently has taken a further step forward in combining HRAM with advanced data mining software for non-targeted analysis.