The Hera Group Laboratory focuses on resilience

Air, water, waste: HERAtech Laboratory’s experience, always up-to-date with regulatory and technological developments

Adapting its analytical response to continuous developments of chemical and biological contaminants that may affect our health: this is the challenge taken up by the Heratech Analysis Laboratory, a company of the Hera Group that deals with projects requested by customers for network services, the design and construction of specialised plants and networks and technical activities.  The answer is based on resilience, in other words, the ability to optimise and industrialise chemical and microbiological processes. There are several fields of action, as is appropriate to a company that operates in one of the most important multiutilities in Italy.

Water testing: from “COD” to “Finger Printing”
“COD” (Chemical Oxygen Demand) is a fundamental, non-specific parameter that can provide information about the pollutant load present in wastewater. Different methods have been used in time to obtain this information: from the titration method, where large quantities of potassium bichromate were used (and that may be harmful to health), we moved on to testing small volumes in test tubes, and then automated robots, which imply less manipulation, making the testing process as a whole more efficient while reducing its environmental impact.  As recommended by the European Union and the new directive on water used for human consumption, a new instrument has been added: the Water Safety Plan (WSP). The analytical approach of COD was thus transformed into a broader concept of screening, which examines different parameters that may be used to “fingerprint” water, establishing its quality. Contingent events or situations affect the research work of environmental laboratories, encouraging them to identify new solutions: asbestos, PFAS, Glyphosate, commonly used drugs, and even the analysis of radioisotopes in water and, more recently, of Sars-CoV-2. Heratech Laboratory’s experience started from tests to assess whether the virus was present in wastewater, which then lead to an epidemiological study and an operational phase of investigation on surfaces present in workplaces. Special kits were used in the latter case followed by PCR testing (“real-time polymerase chain reaction”), a testing method that amplifies the DNA or RNA segments of micro-organisms, making it possible to recognise them clearly and confirm their presence. Research is currently carried out on convective air movements in indoor environments, as possible vectors of disease transmission, monitoring the presence of COVID-19 in ambient air.

Air analysis: from “micrograms to femtograms”
A new philosophy of air pollution containment and prevention has been established at Community level, based on the control not only of immissions but also emissions: the concentrations of pollutants at the point of discharge into the atmosphere. Maximum concentration values have been established for a number of substances, that are increasingly numerous, and a new need of environmental compatibility has been identified, which goes beyond the local control of pollutants. The entry into force of Legislative Decree 152/2006 “Environmental laws” has had an impact on the role of environmental laboratories in air monitoring. Monitoring indeed passed from checking only for the presence of “macropollutants” in the fumes of an incinerator, namely the operating indicators of the combustion process: organic carbon (TOC), carbon oxide (CO), oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and sulphur (SOx), hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acids and total dust, high concentrations of which did not require the use of particularly complex and sensitive instruments, to monitoring other pollution indicators: heavy metals, mercury, particulate matter and organic micro-pollutants, including Dioxins and other Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). The Stockholm Convention of 2004 established that for 12 of these, including dioxin, intentional production is prohibited and unintentional production must be drastically reduced. Monitoring the micro-pollutants emitted by plants has therefore become essential and Laboratories have had to introduce increasingly sophisticated high-performing instruments, in terms of selectivity and sensitivity, such as high-resolution mass spectrometers to establish the levels of PCDD/DF -PCB – IPA, which are today present in treated fumes only at ultra-trace levels, of the order of magnitude of the femtogram (10^-15g). Laboratories therefore play a very important role in monitoring, that today exceeds the thresholds of quantification limits which were previously unattainable, in the rigorous verification of the proper functioning of continuous sampling systems, that according to standards and control bodies must today be present in all plants and are compared with the performance of laboratory instruments used discontinuously. More specialised training of technicians is needed in order to execute monitoring plans and, above all, to interpret results.

WASTE: from “toxic and harmful” to the concept of ecotoxicity
Even waste classification laws have evolved over the years, adapting to applicable Community regulations. Laboratories have followed this evolution. Initially, a specific list of substances and groups of substances were tested, that were associated with specific standardised limits according to their toxicity, above which waste was classified as “toxic and harmful”.  These two adjectives contained very broad “analytical nuances”, which are difficult to express more precisely. Today, specific limits are associated to specific hazards for each substance classified; if these limits are exceeded, the waste is considered to have characteristics that are hazardous to human health and the environment. Research is now carried out on specific, bioaccumulative substances with these risk characteristics: the so-called POPs. This list of substances is regularly updated by Community regulations, in the light of new knowledge on the toxicity and hazardousness of chemical compounds, suggesting that Laboratories search for these in order to characterise waste in a complete manner. This is what occurred in the case of sludge used for farming, where testing passed from a purely agronomic assessment to searching for substances that are known for the characteristics of toxicity and bioaccumulation: metals, pesticides and POPs.

Hera Group’s environmental analysis Laboratories focus on the technological evolution that is necessary to overcome any limits that exist on establishing the levels of pollutants using increasingly sensitive tools, and extending the scope of their research. In this they are accompanied by constant regulatory developments and the need to respond promptly to technological progress in the industry and its impact on health and the environment. From testing therefore, we went on to assess the environmental footprint of a product on our ecosystem and health.