EXPERIENCES WITH APPLICATION OF RAPID METHODS FOR TRUE PURITY AND DRY SUBSTANCE ASSESSMENT IN FACTORY PRODUCT STREAMS

WHILE laboratory operations are integral to maintaining effective factory control, there are pressures both to reduce costs, and from a lack of appropriately skilled employees willing to work on a seasonal basis. Alternative methods of assessing the true purity and dry substance of factory products were described previously by this principal author. These methods were used for routine shift analysis in the Mulgrave Mill laboratory during the 2005 and 2006 seasons. Implementation included development of processes to further reduce labour requirements. The methods returned satisfactory assessments of true purity and dry substance. Over two years the standard error of prediction (SEP, calculated as the standard deviation of the difference between conventional and alternative analytical methods) for the true purity assessment method was 0.86% purity, with 95% of results being within 1.8% purity of the conventional analysis. The dry substance method returned a SEP of 0.45%, with 95% of results being within 1.0%. The alternative methods provided significant advantages over other common methods due to the low levels of analytical skill and input required, low costs and brief time taken for completion. The implementation of these methods has been a key element in reducing laboratory manning without a reduction in analytical quality or quantity. Shift analysts are able to undertake vastly more analytical work than was possible using conventional methods. The alternative methods have been found ideal for analysing samples taken during factory trials, allowing large numbers of samples to be collected and analysed in short time frames.