Patent Description:
The present invention relates to a method of analyzing phosphorus content in soil, the method comprising: a) obtaining a soil sample; b) adding a liquid to the soil sample to form a soil slurry; c) flowing the soil slurry through a filter to form a filtrate; d) blending a reagent composition with the filtrate to form a soil mixture; and e) flowing the soil mixture through an analysis tool along a flow direction whereby a phosphorus absorbance of the soil mixture is measured, wherein the flow direction is oriented such that the soil mixture flows vertically.

In one embodiment the method of the present invention comprises: a) obtaining a soil sample; b) adding a liquid to the soil sample to form a soil slurry; c) flowing the soil slurry through a filter to form a filtrate; d) blending a reagent composition with the filtrate to form a soil mixture; and e) flowing the soil mixture through an analysis tool along a flow direction whereby a phosphorus absorbance of the soil mixture is measured; wherein soil mixture comprises a surfactant and the flow direction is substantially horizontal and orthogonal to the direction of gravity.

In addition, all references cited herein are hereby incorporated by referenced in their entireties.

Moreover, the features and benefits of the disclosure are illustrated by reference to the exemplified embodiments. Accordingly, the disclosure expressly should not be limited to such exemplary embodiments illustrating some possible non-limiting combination of features that may exist alone or in other combinations of features; the scope of the disclosure being defined by the claims appended hereto.

The compositions and methods described below can be used with on the go soil sampling systems, such as those described in PCT Publication No. <CIT>.

The soil analysis may be performed to determine an elemental content of a soil sample. According to the present invention the element content includes phosphorus.

A fourth experiment was performed to test the impact of horizontal FD and vertical FD as it relates to surfactant for a phosphorus soil analysis.

The samples of Examples <NUM>-<NUM> were prepared by blending soil and water together at a <NUM>:<NUM> ratio to create a slurry, whereby the slurry is pulled into the extraction portion of the system and potassium is extracted in a <NUM>:<NUM> ratio of slurry to extractant, the extractant selected from either HCl in ammonium fluoride or acetic acid in ammonium fluoride. After extraction, each extracted sample is filtered, and the filtrate of each sample was then mixed with ammonium molybdate in sulfuric acid.

Each soil mixture of Examples <NUM>-<NUM> were then flowed along the horizontal FD through the analysis tool, and each soil mixture of Examples <NUM>-<NUM> were then flowed along the vertical FD through the analysis tool.

The sample of Example <NUM> included a non-ionic surfactant. The sample of Example <NUM> included an anionic surfactant. The sample of Example <NUM> included a cationic surfactant. The sample of Example <NUM> was free of surfactant. The sample of Example <NUM> included a non-ionic surfactant. The sample of Example <NUM> included an anionic surfactant. The sample of Example <NUM> included a cationic surfactant. The sample of Example <NUM> was free of surfactant.

Each sample of Examples <NUM>-<NUM> were analyzed by the analysis tool at a wavelength between <NUM> - <NUM> to determine the phosphorus concentration in the sample. After mixing, each sample produces turbidity, and the ability to read through each sample was recorded as either a pass or fail - whereby the pass value equates to an optical property sufficiently clear to allow for the reading of the phosphorus concentration at a wavelength between <NUM> - <NUM> and the fail value equates to an optical property insufficiently clear to not allow for reading of the phosphorus concentration at a wavelength between <NUM> - <NUM>. The results are set forth below in Table <NUM>.

Claim 1:
A method of analyzing phosphorus content in soil, the method comprising:
a) obtaining a soil sample;
b) adding a liquid to the soil sample to form a soil slurry;
c) flowing the soil slurry through a filter to form a filtrate;
d) blending a reagent composition with the filtrate to form a soil mixture; and
e) flowing the soil mixture through an analysis tool along a flow direction and performing chemical analysis on the soil mixture flowing through the analysis tool, whereby a phosphorus absorbance of the soil mixture is measured.