Laboratory Design and Development

Laboratory Design and Development

Service Description

Gossman Consulting, Inc. provides analytical laboratory design and development expertise to their customers. GCI personnel began designing analytical laboratories in 1980 and that has continued to the present, with the latest design in 1997 for a laboratory in Santiago, Chile. GCI has designed and overseen the building of a number of laboratories for international clients in addition to many our personnel have designed and built in the United States. In general, the laboratories that have been designed are for industrial production facilities rather than for other applications such as pure research or medical testing. In production labs, the development and design must take into account the needs for timely and accurate information with which to make production decisions. Yet, the testing must be cost effective. Additionally, most of the labs provide environmental and regulatory compliance test data as well as the production data. The laboratories that GCI personnel have designed usually are capable of a wide range of analytical tests including the capability to conduct organic, inorganic, and physical testing. However, small specific lab designs have been developed, in particular for small or start-up production facilities. GCI's design solutions meet the situation without over designing. Designs incorporate attention to practical and regulatory safety requirements. Typically laboratories contain hazardous materials and in some cases hazardous equipment therefore safety can not be a secondary consideration. The labs are also designed for efficiency of technicain movement and efficiency of multiple or complicated analytical steps. All factors from safety to efficiency are included in the design development to ensure that resources are not wasted in operation of the lab. The GCI staff personnel primarily involved in the design work have had many years of actual laboratory experience in positions as technicians, chemists, administrators and managers. In many cases they designed or helped design the laboratories that they worked in.

GCI personnel are also very experienced at specifying and assisting in procurement of the instrumentation and equipment necessary for a lab's specific application. Obtaining the right equipment for the task and knowledge of the different instrument and equipment available will lead to better choices of equipment and a better functioning laboratory. Administrative requirements of a laboratory must also be factored into design and development. The enormous amount of analysis data, the need to document the QA/QC, create reports and store the information pose similar but somewhat different challenges to the design and equipping of a lab's administrative function. Again, GCI personnel have designed and developed laboratory systems which very effectively take these needs into consideration. GCI, when required, designs a lab administrative area to allow hardware and software to link the analysis to administrative functions such as data storage, QA/QC, and invoicing. Practical and cost effective solutions are very much a part of GCI's designs.

The following sketch is a simple example of a specific production laboratory designed to analyze incoming shipments of material into a recycling facility. Also, this lab provides production quality control and quality assurance testing on the materials during processing, and final product quality analysis.

Experience

David Gossman

Performed a comprehensive review of a proposed update to SW-846.
Prepared a new Waste Analysis Plan and QA/QC Plan for a cement plant using both liquid and solid hazardous waste fuel.
Provides hardware support and maintenance for in-house state of the art network system including the networking of the latest 486 and pentium based computer technology, high-end laser printing, CD-ROM, and optical character and voice recognition technology.
Designed and set up a new GC/MSD system for testing organic hazardous waste using the latest available technology from Hewlett-Packard.
Assisted in the development of a "green grass" waste fuel burning facility in the United Kingdom with special emphasis on appropriate quality control measures, process monitoring permitting and stack testing.
Developed a detailed GC-MSD technique for determining volatile and semivolatile organics in hazardous waste fuel. The technique is now being used in at least three hazardous waste fuels laboratories.
Assisted in the development of hazardous waste fuel specifications and laboratory testing methods for a cement kiln using hazardous waste fuel in Australia.
Performed comprehensive audits of contractor operated laboratories testing hazardous waste fuel at three cement plants.
Assisted in the preparation of an ISO 9000 (British Standard 5750) certification application for a hazardous waste fuel laboratory in the United Kingdom.
Developed sample preparation methods for homogenizing non-homogeneous samples of liquid and solid HWF prior to analysis.
Developed and wrote a screening method for radioactive material contamination of HWF.
Developed laboratory testing methods to screen HWF for selected pesticides.
Developed and wrote a comprehensive laboratory operations manual for use at multiple HWF testing laboratories.
Designed and set up a new laboratory for HWF testing in Ohio. Subsequently trained the new lab manager to operate and maintain the lab in accordance with EPA guidelines.
Developed laboratory operating procedure that allows for the determination of sub-ppm levels of mercury in HWF in less than two hours using EPA SW-846 methodology.
Designed and set up a new laboratory for HWF testing in Tennessee. This is the first HWF laboratory designed specifically to comprehensively test solid HWF prior to acceptance and is the first to use x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to determine metals.
Assisted client companies in evaluating technical personnel for positions involved in hazardous waste operations and laboratories.
Guided the engineering design of a bulk liquid HWF facility for a client cement company including tank farm, truck and rail transfer, and laboratory.
Developed an additional HWF facility for Safety-Kleen at a cement plant in South Carolina. This facility has the largest storage facility capacity of any in the country.
Developed and managed a "green grass" HWF facility at the largest cement kiln in the world. This process included permitting, community relations, facility design, construction, personnel hiring, training and management, contract negotiations with the cement manufacturer and training of marketing and sales personnel. The facility was on line burning HWF within five months after a decision was made by both companies to pursue the project. This HWF facility permitted McKesson Envirosystems revenue and profitability growth to record levels and was one of the key reasons for Safety-Kleen's acquisition of McKesson Envirosystems.
Assisted in the development of McKesson Envirosystems standard analytical procedures, QA/QC program and health & safety evaluation system.
Performed a comprehensive systems analysis at three McKesson Envirosystems solvent recycling/waste fuel blending facilities to improve efficiency and QA/QC. Negotiated corporate purchase of laboratory equipment and computers worth $250,000 to standardize plant labs.
Developed and implemented a new comprehensive hazardous waste stream qualification program for McKesson Envirosystems. The system provided a 50% increase in the number of qualifications and added $500,000 in corporate revenues for qualification analysis services.
Designed and set up new laboratories for HWF facilities in California and Kansas. Trained chemists and managers for both facilities.
Developed the first comprehensive and field tested system for determining the chlorine specification for HWF used in cement kilns. This system remains proprietary to David Gossman. The system takes into account a wide variety of parameters including raw material and current fuel chemistry as well as kiln system design.
In 1983, provided the initial design and system specifications for an on-site computerized shipment receipt and invoicing system at multiple commercial RCRA, TSDFs. The system provided significant manpower savings and paid for itself with interest income from faster invoice receipts within one year.
Developed a complete operations and safety manual for use at RCRA permitted hazardous waste fuel facilities.
Developed a comprehensive laboratory and operations training program for the Paulding, Ohio HWF facility which has subsequently been used at five additional RCRA permitted hazardous waste fuel facilities.
Developed the first comprehensive HWF specification which met the needs of product (cement) quality, environmental protection and personal health & safety in 1980.
Developed the first analytical methodology for identifying volatile and semi-volatile compounds with potential health & safety impacts in HWF. Later enhanced this methodology by utilizing wide bore capillary chromatography and multiple detector systems.
Developed the first three tiered hazardous waste testing program in 1981 including pre-shipment testing, shipment receipt testing and blended waste testing. By using such a multi-tiered system, this program was the first to effectively deal with the QA/QC issue relative to testing at RCRA facilities.
Developed and published the first high speed methodology for determining metals in HWF utilizing organic matrix dilution and direct aspiration into an atomic absorption spectrophotometer.
Developed and published the first analytical methodology to utilize ion chromatography to determine F, Cl, Br, S, and P in HWF.
Developed and published the first analytical methodology specifically designed to determine PCBs in HWF. The method was eventually expanded to utilize computerized, graphics based pattern recognition.
Managed the first commercial hazardous waste fuel (HWF) blending facility operating at a cement plant. The facility in Paulding, Ohio was the first of its kind with a complete on-site laboratory and storage facility operating in full compliance with RCRA in 1980.
Designed and set up a commercial soil and water testing laboratory, ChemRightLaboratories, Inc.

Existing SOLUTIONS

GCI has prepared a number of papers relevant to laboratory design and development. (If a link to a paper title is not yet available please e-mail with your fax number for a copy.)

"Quality Control of Hazardous Waste Fuel"

"A Method for the Rapid Semi-Quantitative Identification of Hazardous Organic Constituents in Liquid Organic Hazardous Waste Streams"

"A Review of the Usefulness of Various ASTM and SW-846 Methods Which May Be Used by the Thermal Treatment Industry"

"The Analysis of Flammable Industrial Wastes Using Ion Chromatography"

"Data Processing as an Alternative to Extensive Sample Clean up in the Gas Chromatographic Determination of PCBs"

"The Determination of Metals in Paint and Paint Wastes using Atomic Absorption and Emission Spectroscopy"

GCI Tech Notes "Comments on Draft SW-846", Jan-96

GCI Tech Notes "Hazardous Waste Combustor Review - Chapter 4 Feedstream Analysis" Mar-97

GCI Tech Notes "The “Best” Referenced Methods for Organic Hazardous Waste Analysis”, Nov-95

HWF Notes "Comments on the New EPA Waste Analysis Plan Guidance Manual”, July-94

HWF Notes "Standard Practice for the Microwave Digestion of Industrial Furnace Feedstreams”, Jan-94

HWF Notes "Testing for Pentachlorophenol as a Screening Procedure to exclude PCDD’s and PCDF’s from Hazardous Waste Fuel”, Dec-93