The Hanby Story
Our company has been around for the last 33 years as an environmental company. As Hanby Environmental we manufacture TPH Field Test Kits for the immediate analysis of water and soil samples. In a matter of 4 minutes for soil and 6 minutes for water, you will know the concentration level for the hydrocarbon or contaminate. This very economical quantification and qualification has proven to be an extremely valuable tool the world over on every major oil spill response and on remediation projects. By independent studies performed by the US EPA and US Army Corps of Engineers both found that the results per the Hanby method correlated to laboratory results within a variance of 10%, which is 2.5x better than the acceptable variance for field analysis of 25%.
The Hanby method is a visual colorimetric method utilizing the human eye to compare the sample results to the color calibration photos included in the kits with the color indicating the hydrocarbon or contaminant and the hue or lightness or darkness providing the concentration level thereof. More recently, rebranded under Hanby PetroAnalysis, we have developed a new portable and field ready instrument called the Hydrocarbon ID that standardizes the result reading effectively replacing the subjectivity of human eyes, with that of a computer eye by the use of a uv/vis spectrometer. Through this process, we put a lab in the field immediately obtaining results as accurate or more than that of a laboratory. The uv-vis spectrometer provides a unique identifying spectral curve and then an area under the curve calculation is made to get an exact concentration level. The unique spectral curve identifier is in line with DNA analysis and fingerprinting of hydrocarbons including crude oils.
Our chemical reaction produces robust colors by the excitement of aromatics that make up between 3-30% of a crude oils make up. Reading these results from samples of water, soil, cuttings, drilling mud/fluids or core samples, we are able to use the aromatics as the marker compounds to fingerprint the hydrocarbons including crude oils. This is a revolutionary new technology utilizing molecular spectroscopy in the field or at the wellhead. The numerous applications for this new technology are still being uncovered all the time.
