Development of a Novel Mass Spectrometric ... - Jacobs University

Results and Discussion
Another graphical representation was performed for a set of 5 light shredder waste
samples. These initially identical samples were subjected to similar aeration and
hydrothermal conditions by our project partners upon their small scale reactor
mentioned earlier. Small quantities were cropped from each sample at different
days for analysis. The aim then was to investigate the effect of time against the
presence and abundance of the components within the waste. After the samples
were measured few important parameters were extracted like the number of
saturated and unsaturated and their sum of intensities as shown in table 3.10.
A radar plot in figure 3-80 was established for the parameters which were
extracted from the data analysis program of the Bruker software. From the data for
example it can be seen that the count of saturated compounds remains rather
similar (~34) over all varieties.
The plot showed that sample 2 (4 days) had the highest count of unsaturated and
consequently the highest sum of intensities of these compounds. Excluding sample
1, it was noticed that increasing operating time resulted in a drop of the intensities
of both saturated and unsaturated compounds in the waste samples. Moreover a
reduction of the count of unsaturated compounds was recorded. This reduction is
attributed to the operating time of treatment of those samples on a small scale
reactor. Such a plot provides a detailed information about the changeability of
samples.
Table 3.10 Extracted data from 5 measured light shredder waste samples
#
Operating Count Count
Time Saturated Unsaturated
∑ Int. Sat. (x10 3 ) ∑ Int. Unsat. (x10 4 )
1 2 Days 33 489 557 730
2 4 Days 34 731 1131 1860
3 10 Days 34 666 757 1045
4 14 Days 34 622 508 793
5 16 Days 36 592 512 759
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