Determination of chlorinated solvents in industrial water and wastewater by DAI–GC–ECD

A very simple and quick analytical method, based on direct aqueous injection, for determination of halogenated solvents in refinery water and wastewater, is described. There is a need to determine halogenated solvents in refinery water streams, because they may originate from several processes. There is also a need to develop methods enabling VOX to be determined in samples containing oil fractions. The method described enables simultaneous determination of 26 compounds with low detection limits (sub-μg L(−1)) and excellent precision, especially for highly halogenated solvents. The matrix effects of four types of sample were evaluated—the method seemed to be relatively insensitive to variations in matrix composition. Deuterated 1,2-dichloroethane was used as internal standard and surrogate compound in quantitative analysis; application of isotopically labelled compounds is rarely reported when non-mass spectrometric detectors are used for analysis. Analysis of real samples showed that the most frequently detected compounds were dichloromethane and 1,2-dichloroethane.