The equipment set formed by specification allows any kind of Benzene Line applications. It is applicable for any kind of sample materials for radiocarbon analysis.
Radiocarbon Dating
Benzene line technology is used for radiocarbon dating, producing benzene based on different sample materials: wood, charcoal, bone, peat, soil, shell, and carbonate. It is suitable for processing carbon dioxide or methane samples as well.
It includes all equipment required for processing of carbon samples by transformation: Carbon → Carbide → Acetylene → Benzene, including production, capture, purification and conditioning.
Impact of Nuclear Installation
Systematical and temporal variations of radiocarbon in air cause corresponding variations in annual plants and annual growth in trees (tree rings). Tissues of plant and animal in the NPP vicinity obtain their C-14 concentration depending on food pathway and sources impacting air, water and soil.
Benzene line application for any kind of plant and animal tissue samples, air, water and soil samples to be transformed into benzene for radiocarbon measurement by liquid scintillation counting (LSC).
Bio-based Percentage
Benzene line application and following LS counting of benzene sample enables calculation of the fraction of bio-based content in fuel (bio-diesel and waste fuel), plastic and raw materials. It is a promising approach compared to one based on partial mass calculation for each fraction corresponding to the mixture.
Sample Processing
Benzene samples can be prepared according to traditional approaches based on processing of charcoal or carbon dioxide. Modern approaches based on vacuum pyrolysis allow complete processing of non-homogeneous carbon-containing materials with different volatility, simplify procedures for obtaining lithium carbide, and raise chemical yield — most important for processing small samples.
Modern radiocarbon analysis involves a variety of sample materials which can be processed in the benzene line using vacuum pyrolysis in one or two steps depending on sample material(s) and matrices analyzed.