Fiber optics spectrochemical emission sensors

Abstract

A method of in situ monitoring of a body of a fluid stored in a tank or groundwater or vadose zone gases in a well for the presence of selected chemical species uses a probe insertable into the well or tank via a cable and having electrical apparatus for exciting selected chemical species in the body of fluid. The probe can have a pair of electrodes for initiating a spark or a plasma cell for maintaining a plasma to excite the selected chemical species. The probe also has optical apparatus for receiving optical emissions emitted by the excited species and optically transmitting the emissions via the cable to an analysis location outside the well. The analysis includes detecting a selected wavelength in the emissions indicative of the presence of the selected chemical species. A plurality of probes can be suspended at an end of a respective cable, with the transmitting and analyzing steps for each probe being synchronized sequentially for one set of support equipment and instrumentation to monitor at multiple test points. The optical apparatus is arranged about the light guide axis so that the selected chemical species are excited the fluid in alignment with the light guide axis and optical emissions are received from the excited chemical species along such axis.