Detection and Measurement of Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether (MTBE) Contamination in Ground Water using UV-Vis and FTIR

Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) is a volatile oxygenate commonly used in fuels, is a frequent contaminant of the ground water. The contamination mostly in the Europe and United States has become widespread due to the mandated use of automobile gasoline oxygenated with MTBE. Because of this issue, a lot of technology has been developed in order to detect the contamination and overcome this problem. For example, the current technology exist using gas chromatography such as EPA method 8021B by using photo ionization detection (PID). However, it has its own limitation and weakness to employ the detection. Therefore, efficient analytical technique is necessary to quantify MTBE in ground water. This research is to determine the lowest concentration of MTBE contamination that can be detected by using the UV-Vis or FTIR. In addition, it is also to establish appropriate correlation between UV-Vis and FTIR. The advantage of using these methods is that it will provide with faster measurement. The outcome from this research shows that the UV-Vis equipment does not accurate enough to detect the MTBE contamination in water. It shows inconsistence reading through the graphs and data taken. While for FTIR equipment is more reliable and can detect the MTBE contamination in water better compared to UV-Vis equipment. Correlation for FTIR can be observed on the Results and Discussions section.