The principles of sustainable development and social responsibility are deeply ingrained in CTC's laboratories.

Chemical analyses are essential for validating the compliance of your discharges and enabling you to comply with regulations.

CTC has recognised expertise in the field of water, acquired and proven over more than 60 years, to support you in your efforts.

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The different types of chemical analysis in the water matrix  

Several types of analysis exist, each specific to the parameters being tested for. These parameters depend on your company’s activity and are set out in your prefectural decrees or requested by water agencies (Regular monitoring of discharges (SRR), environmentally hazardous substances SDE).

For example, if you are a facility classified for environmental protection (ICPE) or a water treatment station, you must perform effluent checks and, in particular, monitor so-called general parameters :  

• Chemical oxygen demand (COD) 
• Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) 
• Nitrogen compounds 
• Total suspended solids (TSS) 
• Total organic carbon (TOC) 
• The pH of their discharges 
• Index parameters: Adsorbable Organic Halogens, phenol index, hydrocarbon index 

 

Additionally, and depending on your activity, you must check the heavy metal and metalloid content of your effluents - chrome, iron, zinc, nickel, mercury content, for example. 

To ensure compliance with regulatory thresholds, CTC has high-performance, inductively coupled plasma (ICP) equipment, using mass spectrometry or optical detection, or slightly more specific equipment to test for mercury (atomic fluorescence spectrometry - AFS). This analytic capability covers all of your needs in terms of heavy metals. 

The RSDE actions to detect and reduce hazardous substances in water, as part of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), can be added to the regulatory requirements. This is about detecting any organic micropollutants that are potentially present in your effluents. Once again, this depends on your activity. 

To do this, CTC has chromatographic equipment available that uses latest-generation detection technology. This equipment can help you meet your regulatory requirements (lists of substances, regulatory thresholds), such as the measurement of environmentally hazardous substance  parameters requested by water agencies, or that of pesticides, solvents, alkylphenols, PFOS or other emerging substances such as pharmaceutical residues. 

CTC can also place a team at your disposal to assist you in setting up customised protocols or to look for specific substances. 

 

Analyses on living organisms, toxicity testing  

The aim of ecotoxicology is to study and predict the short- and long-term behaviour and effects of pollutants on ecosystems, through extrapolation. 

As part of the effluent qualification process, a Daphnia toxicity test may be added to the regulatory requirements. 

This involves determining, over a 24-hour period and in clearly defined experimental conditions, the concentration of toxic products that will immobilise 50% of the Daphnia being tested. 

As proof of our experience, CTC has maintained a Daphnia culture for over 30 years and has been accredited in this area for over 20 years 

 

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