Both national laws and an increasing number of supranational recommendations are prescribing emission limits for reasons of public health. These limits may not be exceeded, and must be controlled as seamlessly as possible, in order that consumers of drinking water are not placed in jeopardy.

Furthermore, the quality of raw and/or drinking water must constantly be monitored to be able to perform controlling and/or regulating action or to implement alarms.

In order to prevent any risk to the drinking water consumers’ health, the measured data must be available

1. continuously

2. without delay (in “real time”)

This is the only way to allow quick reaction to changes in the water quality. These requirements can only be fulfilled by online assessment of the raw and drinking water qualities.

Online monitoring in raw and open waters using photometer instruments for individual wavelengths, a state-of-the-art technique for some years now, has proved its value – however, only following sophisticated on-site calibration, and just for individual parameters.

The spectrometer probes from s::can use the same measuring principle: the absorption of light. Yet they measure not only one or two wave lengths, they measure the a continuous optical spectrum reaching from low ultraviolet to visible light.

The brand-new s::can submersible spectrometers can be directly immersed into the medium, making it possible for the first time to combine the advantages of probe measurement with those of spectrometry, eliminating such well-known drawbacks as sampling errors, biochemical or physical conversion after sampling, etc. The measuring technical level thus arrived at opens up completely new vistas. s::can devices are compact and versatile enough to be used in many conditions, from the 2” bore hole to open rivers and canals, vessels and containers, up to pressure and bypass pipes.