Maximizing laboratory flexibility with ETHOS Easy in environmental testing

Founded with a mission to provide advanced analytical support for environmental safety and food quality, Water & Life Lab operates two specialized laboratories in Italy. One focuses on environmental matrices, handling water, soil, and atmospheric emissions, while the other concentrates on food testing, with a strong specialization in inorganic arsenic determination in rice. Since 2013, Water & Life Lab is part of the French Groupe Carso, that is one of the main players on the European market of chemical and microbiological analyses in the environmental sector. As an Accredia-accredited laboratory and long-time participant in international interlaboratory comparisons such as BIPEA, Water & Life is committed to maintaining high analytical performance and regulatory compliance. Over the years, the lab has become a national reference in areas such as soil remediation, biogas monitoring, and fertilizer certification in line with EU Regulation 2019/1009.

Water & Life Lab has a long-term partnership with Milestone. As one of Milestone’s historical customers, Water & Life Lab has relied on microwave digestion technologies for over 25 years. Their journey began with the MEGA-1200, one of the very first microwave digestion systems produced by Milestone and the first with high pressure capabilities in the market. With growing demand from different sectors, including agronomists, environmental consultants, biogas plant operators, and fertilizer manufacturers, Water & Life Lab needed a solution that could handle a high volume of diverse samples with consistent precision. Typical workflows involves:

• Digestion of soils, biomass, and digestate for trace metal analysis by ICP-MS and ICP-OES.
• Analysis of metals in fertilizers, to comply with evolving European regulations.
• Extraction of PAHs from soils for contamination assessment.
• Determination of ether extractables (oils and fats) in biomasses.

Legacy techniques such as ultrasound-assisted extraction systems proved to be time-consuming for the extraction and cleaning processes, provides inconsistent results and occupies valuable space under fume hood. In interlaboratory trials, Water & Life Lab observed lower-than-expected recoveries, particularly in samples with high organic content, due to the inefficiency of ultrasonic extraction. Moreover, growing sample loads, including weekly shipments from over 200 biogas plants, demanded a more automated, cleaner, and reproducible solution.

To streamline both digestion and extraction in a single platform, Water & Life Lab adopted ETHOS EASY, Milestone’s advanced microwave system, configured with:

• SK-15 rotor for microwave digestion of environmental, food and biomass samples.
• fastEX-24 rotor with disposable glass vials for microwave solvent extraction of organic contaminants.

This dual capability allowed Water & Life Lab to:

• Perform up to 24 extractions in parallel using fastEX-24.
• Replace ultrasound-based extractions with faster, cleaner, and more effective microwave extraction.
• Improve recoveries from organic-rich matrices and avoid loss of volatile hydrocarbons by using sodium sulfate.
• Reduce solvent consumption and container cleaning time.
• Transition from semi-manual ether extraction to a fully automated microwave process, improving reproducibility for fats and oils analysis.

Thanks to the glass vessels, cleaning is significantly easier and cross-contamination risk is minimized, that is a key factor in maintaining high standards across accredited methods.