Day 19 - 2

I arrived at CERES at 8AM and left at 4PM.

The current high pressure nitrogen and helium tanks that CERES purchases should have AT MOST 50 mL/tank of oxygen and 50 g/tank of moisture. Based on these values and the current capacity of the lab, I would recommend a system of pre-packed, replaceable, inline, high capacity purifiers and indicating traps. I will communicate this to the lab on Monday.

Anna, Marie, and I went over again the proper plumbing and sequencing of high capacity purifiers and indicating traps so that CERES is prepared to install them correctly upon their arrival. Additionally, Anna and I went over again how to fill in chromatography bench sheets and properly identify compounds by the GC-ECD method. Futhermore, Anna and I went over the next series of steps that CERES will need to take in order to successfully complete the analysis of this years PSDs - roughly 8-9 instrumental sequences. The steps discussed included:

1. Determine if CERES has access to higher quality instrument supply gases and assess the options.
2. Determine, purchase, and install an appropriate instrument gas supply purification system.
3. Develop a strategy for monitoring the state of the gas purification system.
4. Replace GC-ECD detectors... the back detector has priority, but both are in really poor shape.
5. Generate instrument blanks to demonstrate instrument baseline and system cleanliness.
6. Determine the state of DB-17ms and DB-XLB capillary columns by injecting standards and evaluating chromatography for consistency with OSU chromatography.
7. Re-calibrate the method to data quality objectives described in the SOP 404.04 - use the calibration standards brought over this training session
8. Analyze the samples as per the original training session's specifications, conduct real-time QC.
9. Save data files as excel spreadsheets along with window snapshots for data traceability. 
10. Send all saved materials to OSU on a per batch basis. 

I also found that Anna was limited on instrument and product literature, so I gave her several Agilent guides and other references including: the Agilent 6890 GC operating manual, Agilent ECD operating guide, Agilent ECD troubleshooting guide, the Agilent 2011-2012 product guide, a chromatography troubleshooting reference, and Supelco Bulletin 898C - gas management systems for GC. Furthermore, I met for about 10 minutes with Dogo and discussed how the project developed and where the lab will be as of my departure. I leave on Wednesday the 12th.