PFAS Translator for the Most Common Methods

June 30, 2022 at 2:00 PM / by David Gallagher posted in Sample preparation, Solid-phase extraction, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, wastewater, SPE, PFBS, PFCA, PTFE, EPA, PFOA, environmental compliance

One of the most frustrating things that we here at Biotage have had to deal with when we compare PFAS methods is the lack of a common naming convention for the compounds. It seems like every scientific article and every method contains at least one compound that either uses a new name or a new abbreviation and we have to spend excess time trying to confirm that yes, we're looking at the same compound. It's so annoying!

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The Problem of PFAS: Part 4 - Tracking Contamination

February 3, 2022 at 4:00 PM / by Matt Harden posted in EPA Method 537.1, EPA Method 533, PFOS, EPA, PFOA, ISO 16175

Welcome to part 4 of our blog series “The Problem of PFAS”. If you are just tuning in, you might want to take a look at the previous blogs of this series as we provided background on the PFAS controversy (Part 1), a review of the regulatory guidelines for monitoring PFAS contamination in the environment (Part 2), and most recently, a look at which analytical method might work the best for your lab (Part 3). If you are up to speed on this series, you should now have a good baseline on what we’ll be discussing today.

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How to Reduce Sample Volumes without Sacrificing Analytical Detection Limits

October 21, 2021 at 2:00 PM / by Deanna Bissonnette posted in biotage horizon 5000, oil and grease, wastewater, epa method 1664b, Biotage Horizon 3100, hexane extractable materials, EPA, reduced volume

In the world of environmental testing, many labs encounter extremely dirty samples. For example, EPA Method 1664B is the protocol for extracting oil and grease from wastewater samples. More often than not, these types of samples are really dirty, requiring loads of pre-filters, glass wool, and filter aid in order to get the entire liter of water through the disk. Well, there is!

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Performance vs. Prescriptive Based EPA Methodology

June 17, 2021 at 2:00 PM / by Deanna Bissonnette posted in SPE solid phase extraction, perscriptive, performance, EPA

I am willing to bet there have been a few people reading this that early in their careers have had a moment of “what does that mean” when learning new procedures and or methods. You are about to learn mine. When I was onboarding and learning new standard operating procedures and methods one really stood out and still does to this day. It was when I was first exposed to EPA method 1664B. It stated right in the introduction it is a performance-based method. I thought to myself what does a performance-based method consist of and how do all labs qualify to run it?

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