Solvita

Solvita IRTH® CO2 Respirometers

Description
IRTH® CO2 Respirometer Overview: Solvita® IRTH® CO2 Respirometer is an exciting new CO2 respirometer uniquely designed with a wide range of applications. Developed after years of work with soils and composts in varying environments, IRTH® meets the needs for both accuracy and practicality.  Whether you want to do a 24-hr CO2-Burst or observe basal respiration over several days (for more details see Tech-Memo #16), IRTH® is precisely positioned for this flexibility. The Woods End designed & built strategy matches the physics of optical chemistry as found in our earlier popular Solvita® CO2 gel product with the dependency of modern NDIR technology selected for its wide-range of CO2 linearity suitable to the highly variable soil & compost environment. Equipped with on board software IRTH® can be operated as a standalone assay unit collecting respiration data for any determined time cycle or attached to a PC for screen-based monitoring. Use of Solvita Reader software enables re-displaying previous runs and  printing standard reports, or downloading to a spreadsheet for further analysis.

IRTH® CO2 Respirometer Application: This elegant, integrated respirometer “smart-lid” allows testing of soils, composts and organic debris in any range from 10 to 300 g and is capable of reporting CO2- concentration up to 200,000 ppm or quantitative C-loss rates of up to 2500 ug/g soil without the need for re-calibration or sacrificing soil quantity. The designers have specifically enabled use of macro amounts of soil to preserve field characteristics and minimize soil disturbance.  The unit also reports the qualitative Solvita color scale, a unique and universally-applicable exponential ranking (similar to the pH scale) of low to very high-respiring soils. Attach the IRTH® head to optionally sized jars to turn the unit into a mini-terrarium to assess soils under field conditions with and without plant growth and surface debris.  Tracks and records temperature during the test period and applies NTP for Ideal Gas Law for conversion of results.

Using Solvita IRTH® is a simple six-step process: 1. Fill the jar with a sample test substance (soil, compost or plant litter). 2. Close the gas-sensitive lid. 3. Connect IRTH® via USB cable to a PC or direct USB power hub. 4. Allow IRTH® simply to run, or use its software to set a predetermined length 5. See results immediately on the LED screen, even before downloading. 6. Use Solvita software to create sample reports and manage data.

Applications for IRTH®:
Soil respiration (an indicator of soil health)
Decay rate (of plant-litter such as leaves, grass clipping or stover mixed into the soil)
Spoilage rate (of foodstuffs such as grains and vegetables)
Compost stability (such as determining when active decay has ended)
Long-Term Carbon Studies, see Tech Memo

Contents:

1 IRTH® Detector
475 mL jar
1265 mL jar (for larger scale biology studies)
2 O-Rings
USB cable
Software Solvita Reader
Instruction Manual
Note: USB cable included but requires either a PC-USB port for power or a USB-Power strip (not included).