Assessment of an automated titration system for batch measurements of total alkalinity

Abstract

Total alkalinity (TA) is the measure of water's ability to neutralize acids. Discrete TA samples are typically measured by acid titration, with one sample processed at a time, which is tedious and time-consuming. In this study, we assessed an automated titration system for TA batch measurements that included the washing procedure between each sample analysis; and evaluated the impact of various factors on the precision of TA measurement, including the sample mass, sample salinity, temperature variation, and the dilution effect from the residual washing water. The results showed that temperature variation within ±1 °C, salinity ranging from 0 to 40, sample mass from 20 to 30 g, and the residual washing water within 2 g did not affect the precision of TA measurement (±2 μmol/kg). In addition, the automated titration system encoded with Gran calculation managed to determine the negative TA as low as −100 μmol/kg. Our study suggests that the automated titration system with an auto-sampler is capable of high-precision TA batch measurements.