Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions

Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Analysis

Water quality compliance concerns and process upsets need to be detected quickly and accurately so you can make confident decisions and take action. 

Total organic carbon (TOC) monitoring is an analytical method for measuring levels of carbon-based compounds or contaminants in water. It is commonly used to ensure adherence to water quality standards and for process monitoring across industries such as pharmaceuticals, microelectronics, food & beverage, chemical processing, municipal, and more.

TOC monitoring provides rapid, sensitive, and comprehensive detection of organic compounds, making it an indispensable tool for quality control, regulatory compliance, process optimization, and asset protection. By delivering actionable data in the lab or via continuous, real-time monitoring, a powerful TOC program enables you to achieve compliance, detect and prevent contamination, reduce water use, and provide insights for process control and troubleshooting.

Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Analysis

Water quality compliance concerns and process upsets need to be detected quickly and accurately so you can make confident decisions and take action. 

Total organic carbon (TOC) monitoring is an analytical method for measuring levels of carbon-based compounds or contaminants in water. It is commonly used to ensure adherence to water quality standards and for process monitoring across industries such as pharmaceuticals, microelectronics, food & beverage, chemical processing, municipal, and more.

TOC monitoring provides rapid, sensitive, and comprehensive detection of organic compounds, making it an indispensable tool for quality control, regulatory compliance, process optimization, and asset protection. By delivering actionable data in the lab or via continuous, real-time monitoring, a powerful TOC program enables you to achieve compliance, detect and prevent contamination, reduce water use, and provide insights for process control and troubleshooting.

Accurate TOC results to support your specific industry regulations and application needs

Find the Right TOC Analyzer

Visit the Sievers Resource Center

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Total organic carbon (TOC) analysis is a measurement that provides insights into water quality and process control. It provides a fast, accurate, and effective way to gauge the purity of water used in processes as well as the water taken from and returned to the environment. TOC analysis with Sievers Instruments covers a dynamic analytical range from 0.03 ppb for microelectronics manufacturing up to 50,000 ppm for industrial process and wastewater. Be it pharmaceutical grade water monitoring and compliance testing, or process and contamination control, industries that rely on TOC monitoring have a consistent need – the need for accurate, fast, and reliable results.

Microelectronics

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Maximize wafer manufacturing yield and control your ultrapure water (UPW) quality

Ultrapure water is essential for semiconductor device fabrication. While achieving this purity is complex and expensive, it's critical for maintaining product quality and manufacturing standards.

Microelectronics manufacturers require precise monitoring across multiple purity levels – from low parts-per-million (ppm) concentrations in feedwater to parts-per-trillion (ppt) concentrations prior to final polishing. Additional complexity can arise when analyzing complex sample matrices for reclaim and wastewater applications. 

As one of the world's most complex and precise processes, semiconductor manufacturing requires stringent control of high-purity water. Even trace contaminants can cause significant defects and reduce product yields, making total organic carbon (TOC) monitoring essential for contamination control.  

But not all analytical tools are made equal. Instrumentation used for monitoring microelectronics applications must provide stable low-level performance, instrument-to-instrument matching, and excellent limit of detection. With Sievers Instruments, you will be confident you have the right technology for low-level detection of all organics, combined with minimal maintenance, ease of use, and reduced downtime

Pharmaceuticals

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Meet pharmaceutical regulations and validate cleaning processes with quantitative TOC analysis

Total organic carbon (TOC) analysis is essential for monitoring pharmaceutical Purified Water (PW) and Water for Injection (WFI), where water quality directly impacts product safety and is a requirement for regulatory compliance. As a Process Analytical Technology (PAT), continuous real-time TOC monitoring serves as an early warning system for potential contamination or system issues, enabling immediate process control decisions and optimizing manufacturing efficiency.

Beyond water system monitoring, TOC is a proven marker for detecting organic residues during cleaning validation. Compared to other analytical methods used to validate cleaning processes, TOC provides a comprehensive analysis of contamination that can compromise product quality and lead to batch failures.

Using TOC for cleaning validation streamlines method development while providing more comprehensive analysis than other tools. It detects all organic compounds - including APIs, degradants, cleaning agents, and excipients - offering greater versatility than compound-specific methods like HPLC. With at-line and online cleaning validation capabilities, you can reduce equipment release time and minimize error risks.

Pharmaceutical Water Quality Monitoring Cleaning Validation

Difference Between a TOC Sensor and TOC Analyzer

Real-Time Release Testing (RTRT/RTT)

TOC Basics for Life Science Applications

Simultaneous Stage 1 Conductivity and TOC Testing

Why Sievers for Pharmaceutical Water?

4 Ways to Maximize ROI of Your Water Quality Analyzer

TOC for Cleaning Validation A to Z

Cleaning Validation eBook

5 Secrets to Successful Cleaning Validation with TOC

Transitioning from HPLC to TOC for Cleaning Validation

Lab vs Online vs At-line Cleaning Validation with TOC

Online Cleaning Validation for Real-Time Equipment Release

Industrial Process Water, Utility Water & Wastewater

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Safeguard equipment, optimize water treatment, and ensure utility water is clean with accurate TOC process monitoring

Total organic carbon (TOC) analysis plays a vital role across industrial processes, ensuring optimization and control of feedwater, steam generation, boiler protection, and wastewater treatment.

From protecting valuable equipment assets to ensuring process efficiency and compliant effluent discharge, TOC monitoring provides critical data for operational decision-making and process optimization. This is especially valuable in wastewater process monitoring, where TOC analysis produces rapid and accurate data in just minutes, unlike traditional BOD and COD tests which take days or hours to complete.

Wastewater monitoring: 

  • Influent control
    • Track feedwater
    • Monitor organic load fluctuations 
  • Treatment process
    • Improve decisions using process TOC data
    • Optimize anaerobic digestion with steady feed
    • Manage equalization tanks
  • Discharge compliance
    • Effluent quality monitoring and regulatory compliance
    • Stormwater runoff control 
  • Accurate TOC results within minutes, in contrast to BOD and COD tests

Utility water monitoring: 

  • Protect boilers and prevent costly equipment failures and shutdowns
  • Monitor condensate return quality
  • Detect leaks and process upsets quickly

Cleaning verification:

  • CIP (clean-in-place) monitoring
  • Optimize cleaning processes and reduce water consumption
  • Meet post-cleaning targets

Source water monitoring: 

  • Check raw water water quality 
  • Optimize treatment 
  • Protect downstream equipment and processes
Why TOC? Applications & Technology

Quick Guide to Monitoring Industrial Processes with TOC

What are the Benefits of Tracking Carbon in Your Water?

Case Study: Switching from BOD/COD to TOC Saves F&B Facility $700,000 and Increases Wastewater Treatment Capacity

Wastewater Treatment Optimization: Why Shift from BOD/COD to TOC?

Using TOC to Improve Chemical Dosing and Optimize Wastewater Treatment

How to Improve Process Control of Secondary Biological Treatment using TOC Analysis

Real-time TOC Analysis for Efficient Distillery Wastewater Management

Is Your Utility Water Pure? Protect Steam Generation Processes with TOC

 

Learn more about the Sievers InnovOx SCWO technology

Municipal Water

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TOC monitoring supports water treatment optimization and regulatory compliance

Accurate measurement of TOC throughout a drinking water treatment plant allows operators to reduce TOC levels, support disinfection byproduct (DBP) compliance, and implement efficiency and cost savings into the treatment processes. 

TOC in drinking water is formed from the decay of naturally occurring organic matter (NOM) or man-made organic chemicals. Its reaction with chlorine-based disinfectants can form harmful, regulated DBPs such as trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs). TOC analysis offers a cost-effective, simple method for measuring percent removal in influent and effluent streams, enabling data-driven treatment decisions and regulatory compliance.

In wastewater treatment, monitoring organic loads – particularly TOC – is a fast, precise method to meet discharge regulations and maintain efficient and effective operations. TOC analysis can provide accurate, near real-time data, making it well suited for process analysis and superior to slower, traditional methods such as chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). 

Method Comparison:

TOC Analysis:

  • Analysis Time: 5-7 minutes
  • Enables real-time process control / real-time decisions

BOD Analysis:

  • Analysis Time: 5 days
  • Prone to interferences and less precise than other methods

COD Analysis:

  • Analysis Time: 2-3 hours
  • Requires use of toxic chemicals and generates hazardous wastes
Case Studies Resources

Reducing Cost With Process Optimization and TOC at a Drinking Water Plant

Direct Potable Reuse (DPR) Plant Brings Drought Resiliency With Organics Monitoring

Using TOC to Control Coagulant Dosing in Water Treatment

TOC: The Best Tool in a Drinking Water Facility’s Toolbox

eBook: The Power of Organics Monitoring

The Path Toward Potable Reuse Through Reliable Organics Monitoring

Transforming Wastewater Monitoring: Shifting from BOD/COD to TOC

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Laboratory

Achieve reliable analytical results and boost productivity with dedicated laboratory TOC instruments.

Perfect tools to boost efficiency for compliance testing, quality control, and detailed sample analysis.

The Sievers portfolio of lab TOC instruments supports various sample matrices and concentrations and includes analyzers engineered for specific industry needs:

For pharmaceuticals, the Sievers M9 delivers:

  • Simultaneous TOC and Stage 1 conductivity testing for USP <643> and <645> compliance
  • Adherence to global regulations including USP <643>, USP <645>, EP 2.2.44, IP 2.4.30, CP Appendix VIII R, and JP <2.59>
  • Comprehensive data management, including full compliance support for 21 CFR Part 11 and data integrity

Support for cleaning validation applications.

 

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Sievers M9 Lab

Simultaneous TOC and Conductivity for pharmaceutical water, WFI, cleaning validation, diagnostics…

 

For drinking water and environmental monitoring, the Sievers M5310 C provides:

  • Minimal maintenance requirements and user-friendly operation
  • Support for disinfection byproducts rule (DBPR) compliance
  • Data-driven insights for treatment optimization

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Sievers M5310 C Lab

EPA compliance TOC monitoring, drinking water, environmental water quality, municipal, and process water…

 

For wastewater and challenging industrial applications, the Sievers InnovOx features:

  • Wide dynamic operating range up to 50,000 ppm
  • Patented Supercritical Water Oxidation for superior TOC recovery
  • Reliable performance for biological wastewater plant optimization and high salt/brine monitoring

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Sievers InnovOx Lab

Robust sample handling for industrial wastewater, biological treatment, process control, brine, condensate return, and reuse/reclaim…

Portable Monitoring and At-Line Testing

Bring the lab to your sampling point, gain process understanding where you need it with portable TOC analyzers

Ideal for multi-point sampling, troubleshooting, and rapid process analysis. These versatile TOC monitoring solutions enable quick decision-making and immediate response to water quality or process changes, helping reduce downtime and optimize operational efficiency.

Process understanding through at-line monitoring has become essential across industries, as demonstrated by the pharmaceutical industry's Process Analytical Technology (PAT) framework. This risk-based approach to achieving optimal quality and efficiency has become a standard in the pharmaceutical industry - as well as many other industries - for maintaining consistent product quality and maximizing operational performance.

Sievers portable TOC instruments are deployed at-line (or close to a process stream) across various applications:

  • Compliance testing
  • Cleaning validation
  • Troubleshooting
  • Process control
  • Continuous monitoring applications

At-line TOC analysis provides essential insights into system performance, water treatment, and process optimization. Using Sievers TOC Analyzers, operators across multiple industries can make immediate, data-driven decisions through quantitative measurements for:

High-Purity Water Systems (Pharmaceuticals & Microelectronics)

  • Maintain strict water quality standards
  • Reduce system risks and downtime
  • Support compliance testing

Industrial & Municipal Water Applications (Food & Beverage, Chemical Processing, Water Treatment)

  • Optimize wastewater treatment
  • Monitor utility and process water
  • Improve operational efficiency

Manufacturing Equipment Cleaning (All Industries)

  • Validate cleaning procedures
  • Improve cleaning process understanding
  • Generate results within minutes
  • Minimize equipment hold times

 

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Sievers M9 Portable

At-line monitoring of pharmaceutical water systems, at-line cleaning validation, simultaneous TOC and conductivity…

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Sievers M9e Portable

Microelectronics UPW loop monitoring, reclaim, reverse osmosis, troubleshooting, low-level TOC…

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Sievers M5310 C Portable

Troubleshooting and portable monitoring, EPA compliance, reuse/reclaim, system optimization…

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Sievers CheckPoint TOC Sensor

Portable TOC sensor for rapid diagnostic sampling and troubleshooting of UPW systems…

Online / Continuous Monitoring

Real-time TOC analysis delivers seamless surveillance of critical processes, enabling immediate response to excursions and ensuring consistent product quality

Exceptional continuous monitoring tools. Online TOC monitoring has become essential across diverse industries, from pharmaceuticals and microelectronics to chemical processing and food & beverage. While known as Process Analytical Technology (PAT) in pharmaceutical applications, the benefits of continuous monitoring are universal. The real-time data stream enables:

  • Rapid detection of process deviations
  • Regulatory compliance
  • Efficient validation of cleaning procedures
  • Optimization of treatment processes
  • Implementation of predictive maintenance strategies
  • Support for real-time release testing (RTRT)

For wastewater applications, continuous TOC monitoring enables rapid detection of influent variations and real-time process control, helping facilities optimize treatment efficiency and ensure discharge compliance.

By detecting out-of-trend (OOT) or out-of-specification (OOS) results instantly, continuous TOC monitoring empowers operators to take immediate preventative and corrective actions, ensuring optimal process control and product quality.

Pharmaceutical & Biotech Applications

Compared to traditional lab-based testing, Sievers online TOC and conductivity monitoring systems provide:

  • True real-time release (RTRT / RTT) of ultrapure water (UPW)
  • Automated compliance with USP <643> and <645> requirements
  • Elimination of laboratory bottlenecks
  • Significantly reduced release times 
  • Enhanced operational efficiency
  • Immediate detection of system excursions
  • Online cleaning validation, verification, and monitoring

Microelectronics High-Purity Water Applications

In semiconductor manufacturing, where water quality directly impacts yield, continuous TOC monitoring provides critical surveillance with:

  • Continuous monitoring throughout the make-up water system — from the feed water to the final point of use
  • Immediate detection of low-level contamination at sub-ppb levels
  • Ultra-fast response time for reclaim stream monitoring
  • Real-time alerts for immediate excursion response
  • Protection of critical manufacturing processes

Industrial & Municipal Water Applications (Food & Beverage, Chemical Processing, Water Treatment)

Real-time TOC analysis optimizes process water, utility water, and wastewater operations through:

  • Rapid detection of influent variations
  • Optimization of treatment processes
  • Continuous discharge compliance monitoring
  • Early warning of process upsets
  • Reduced operational costs through process optimization
  • Protection of downstream equipment and processes

Manufacturing Equipment Cleaning (All Industries)

Accelerate clean-in-place (CIP) processes and cleaning validation applications with:

  • Real-time CIP cleanliness verification
  • Equipment release time reduction from days to minutes
  • Process optimization
  • Reduced water consumption opportunities
  • Immediate detection of cleaning process deviations

 

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Sievers M500 Online Analyzer

Pharmaceutical water real-time release testing (RTRT), 21 CFR Part 11, data integrity, process analytical technology…

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Sievers M500e TOC Analyzer

Microelectronics applications, online UPW monitoring, low-level detection, process monitoring...

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Sievers M9 Online Analyzer

Real-time monitoring for pharmaceutical water systems, TOC and conductivity compliance testing, process monitoring…

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Sievers M9e Online Analyzer

Ultra-low TOC monitoring for microelectronics, high sensitivity and accuracy…

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Sievers M5310 C Online Analyzer

Continuous monitoring, dual-stream capabilities for environmental, municipal & industrial applications…

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Sievers InnovOx Online Analyzer

Industrial process monitoring, robust sample handling, dynamic range up to 50,000 ppm for brine and wastewater…

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Sievers CheckPoint TOC Sensor

Portable TOC sensor for rapid diagnostic sampling and troubleshooting of UPW systems…

What makes Sievers TOC analysis better? Membrane Conductometric Technology

Your complete TOC partner: End-to-end monitoring solutions and support

TOC monitoring is about more than just instruments. Veolia and its Sievers Instruments team are your complete partner for monitoring, process optimization, and real-time release testing. Our comprehensive support includes:

 

Technical Expertise:

  • Risk-based monitoring strategy development
  • Method development and implementation
  • Out-of-specification (OOS) troubleshooting
  • Process optimization guidance

Validation & Compliance:

  • Pharmaceutical-specific validation protocol development
  • Data integrity assurance
  • Regulatory compliance support

Ongoing Support:

  • Preventive maintenance programs
  • Technical service and training
  • Software and system updates
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