Carbon/Nitrogen Analyzer to Analyze Soil and Plant Material

The USDA, ARS, Plains Area (PA), Agroecosystem Management Research Unit (AMRU) is seeking a Carbon/Nitrogen Analyzer to analyze soil and plant material. The instrument must operate by high temperature combustion inside a vertical steel tube and be capable of analyzing up to 1 g of organic sample and 4 mL of aqueous sample. The instrument must also have an integrated 90 position top loading sampler for automated ash removal. • The instrument must contain a third furnace for catalytic post-combustion to ensure complete conversion of CH4 → CO2 in high organic content samples. • The instrument flow path must be designed to allow measurement of 100% of combusted nitrogen via a thermal conductivity detector (TCD) without “gas splitting” or chromatographic separation. • The instrument must utilize a helium or argon carrier gas flow via an electronic mass flow controller (MFC) between furnace and detector to allow for calibration stability over several months or years. • The instrument must have an effective three-stage water removal flow path: condenser, membrane dryer, and chemical dryer. • The instrument control and data collection should be performed by a standard personal computer (PC) operating Microsoft Windows.