• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.1-13
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• 2009

Alkalinity and total carbon contents were measured by acid neutralizing titration (ANT), back titration (BT), gravitational weighing (GW), non-dispersive infrared-total carbon (NDIR-TC) methods for assessing precision and accuracy of alkalinity and total carbon concentration in $CO_2$-rich water. Artificial $CO_2$-rich water(ACW: pH 6.3, alkalinity 68.8 meq/L, $HCO_3^-$ 2,235 mg/L) was used for comparing the measurements. When alkalinity measured in 0 hr, percent errors of all measurement were 0~12% and coefficient of variation were less than 4%. As the result of post-hoc analysis after repeated measure analysis of variance (RM-AMOVA), the differences between the pair of methods were not significant (within confidence level of 95%), which indicates that the alkalinity measured by any method could be accurate and precise when it measured just in time of sampling. In addition, alkalinity measured by ANT and NDIR-TC were not change after 24 and 48 hours open to atmosphere, which can be explained by conservative nature of alkalinity although $CO_2$ degas from ACW. On the other hand, alkalinity measured by BT and GW increased after 24 and 48 hours open to atmosphere, which was caused by relatively high concentration of measured total carbon and increasing pH. The comparison between geochemical modeling of $CO_2$ degassing and observed data showed that pH of observed ACW was higher than calculated pH. This can be happen when degassed $CO_2$ does not come out from the solution and/or exist in solution as $CO_{2(g)}$ bubble. In that case, $CO_{2(g)}$ bubble doesn't affect the pH and alkalinity. Thus alkalinity measured by ANT and NDIR-TC could not detect the $CO_2$ bubble although measured alkalinity was similar to the calculated alkalinity. Moreover, total carbon measured by ANT and NDIR-TC could be underestimated. Consequently, it is necessary to compare the alkalinity and total carbon data from various kind of methods and interpret very carefully. This study provide technical information of measurement of dissolve $CO_2$ from $CO_2$-rich water which could be natural analogue of geologic sequestration of $CO_2$.