Ten Reasons to Choose a Mobile Laboratory

But why are so many project managers choosing this route to improve their overall delivery? Paul Tilley, operations director, for Geo-environmental, offers us ten reasons to use a mobile lab, and they are not just about time saving.

1. Reducing turnaround times

OK, we did say that benefits are not all about time saving and you already know about this one, so we may as well explain it in a little more detail… Mobile laboratories have the ability to provide rapid results, something that is often a necessity on high pressured projects. In fact, mobile laboratories can be mobilised quickly to site providing analysis within hours. But of course, this is not as easy as it sounds, with correct equipment, method selection and quality control being absolutely essential to producing robust data.

2. Confidence in data

By using strict quality protocols and controlled on-site working conditions, mobile laboratories can ensure that quality data is available within hours or minutes of sampling and sometimes in real time. Delivering contaminated land risk assessments and remediation projects require sufficient chemical analysis data on a fast turnaround basis, to ensure that uncertainties are minimised and risks are controlled. With this in mind, mobile laboratories are able to offer a wide range of chemical analysis techniques on-site, such as X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF analysis) and ultra violet fluorescence technology (UVF analysis), as well as a range of other techniques covering common contaminants and giving quantitative assessments tailored to the project requirements.

3. Controlling costs

There may be a perception that procuring a mobile laboratory can contribute hugely to project costs. But this is not the case. In fact, the cost of deploying mobile laboratories is normally very small in terms of the overall budget and the added value to your project means that using a mobile laboratory can significantly reduce costs by allowing effective delineation and segregation of contaminated materials, thus minimising remediation and waste disposal spend. For example, our mobile laboratory case studies have proved significant cost savings for clients, in the tens of thousands of pounds or more.

4. Data density

We understand that site investigations and remediation projects require comprehensive data, providing as much detail as possible on the distribution of contaminants. The ability to provide you with high quality, high volume data that complements off-site laboratory analysis and increases the overall density of data provides far more certainty in site characterisation.

5. Delineation of contamination

Whether during site investigation or remediation, the ability to more accurately delineate the extent of hotspots with on-site analysis leads to huge advantages.  For site investigations, it allows a far more effective use of drilling and sampling resources by identifying areas of concern and avoiding the need to return to site for further sampling. In remediation, it provides far more confidence in decision making, including when to backfill excavations, when material is suitable for re-use and segregation of different classes of material, or even waste.

6. Reduced hazardous waste volumes

Reducing hazardous waste volumes is often a key influence of the cost of contaminated land remediation projects. Not only does the reduction of hazardous waste help control handling and improve the environment of the site, it can also significantly reduce the developer’s costs of disposal or treatment of wastes. In the past, on-site analysis of soils for metals and hydrocarbons at contaminated sites have reduced the volume of hazardous waste by 90% by allowing segregation of complex heterogeneous soils.

7. Decisions based on awareness and quality assurance

Understandably, decisions tend to err on the side of caution, when it comes to contaminated land remediation. However, increased density of data from mobile laboratories on the ground investigation site leads to increased certainty and reassurance. 

8. On-site advice

You won’t just get the results you need on-site, with a mobile laboratory, you also get experienced, technical experts on-hand to interpret your data in a quick and easy to understand format, which can be tailored to the individual project needs and presented in a colour coded ‘traffic’ light format. We can also use georeferenced digital data management systems on-site to quickly integrate on site results with previous site information and hence provide the full picture.

9. Site specific quality control

To ensure that the data interpretation is as reliable as possible, it is necessary to understand how the on-site results relate to off-site laboratories and key risk thresholds for the project.  Hence, SOCOTEC carries out Demonstrations of Method Applicability in line with Environment Agency guidance and pressure test the mobile laboratory output against specific decision making criteria. Understanding how the on-site data fits with the site requirements means that the level of certainty in decision making is high.

10. Collaboration

These days collaboration is the key to the success of many projects and by having your testing carried out in an on-site mobile laboratory, with one point of contact, you can discuss all of your testing and advice requirements on-site at the drop of a hat, providing you with a truly integrated solution to a range of operational site requirements.

Setting up an on-site laboratory can seem a daunting prospect when faced with the other pressures of your project. I hope that the tips above have given you some reassurance on the benefits of using mobile laboratories and I would be happy to provide you with more advice.