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As the Quality Assurance Analyst at the New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado, Mandy Miller can think of more important things to do than wait for a Dissolved Oxygen (DO) meter to polarize (waiting time for Clark electrode to stabilize). "Sometimes you don't have 15 minutes to stand around and wait," she said.

Miller's waiting days have ended. With the recent purchase of Hach Company's new HQ10 Portable Luminescent Dissolved Oxygen Meter, Miller no longer spends her time calibrating the meter, polarizing the probe, and waiting for the measurement to stabilize. "It's so easy to use. I like the fact that it doesn't need to be calibrated" said Miller.

Within 30 seconds, the meter locks in a stable measurement and beeps to alert the user. Miller raves that the HQ10 beeps when a measurement has locked in, in contrast to other meters that drift and make the operator guess at the best DO value.

Luminescent dissolved oxygen technology is a recent advance in water quality measurement and functions differently than traditional electrodes. The Hach LDO™ sensor is coated with a luminescent material. Blue light from an LED is transmitted to the sensor surface where it excites the luminescent material. When the luminescent material relaxes it emits red light. This red luminescence of the sensor is proportional to the dissolved oxygen present. A red LED is incorporated into the sensor as an internal reference.

At New Belgium, brewer of Fat Tire Amber Ale and Sunshine Wheat Beer, Miller has been using the HQ10 for nearly six months. The results have been so successful that the Brewery is considering purchasing the online Hach LDO Dissolved Oxygen Probe for process measurements in the process-water plant. According to Miller, "Luminescent technology seems like a better way to measure DO".

With production at 320,000 barrels of beer this year, and a commitment to environmental quality, New Belgium strives to be on the cutting edge of technology. The brewery measures dissolved oxygen in the process water primarily to monitor aerobic sludge health.

Advanced technology allows users of the HQ10 DO sensor to enjoy maintenance free usage. It arrives to the customer pre-calibrated and requires no additional calibration during its 1-year life. In addition, the probe does not require probe polarization. Finally, the probe has no electrolyte to replace, and no cathodes or anodes to polish. For Miller, who takes three DO measurements each day with the portable meter, the time saved is tremendous – several hours per week, or hundreds of hours per year.

SOURCE: Hach Company