Mobile labs allow users to test in remote locations more quickly and at a lower cost than at many fixed labs. A mobile lab is defined as a lab that operates within a vehicle. Mobile labs are utilized in sectors including environmental testing, mining, oil and gas, construction and food. IBO spoke with three organizations that operate, build or use mobile labs. Their experiences highlight the possibilities and challenges associated with mobile labs and what improvements need to be made to maximize mobile labs’ efficiency.

SGS is a firm that equips, staffs and operates mobile labs for the mining industry, among other industries. Its mining mobile labs are often used for geochemical projects because of the hard-to-access locations. SGS receives customer requests for its mobile sample preparation units (MSPUs) throughout the world. In Africa, SGS mobile labs currently operate in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Ghana and Mauritania. A mobile lab at a mining site in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, offers a drillcore and rock sample preparation capacity of 600 samples per day.

SGS’s mining MPSUs are designed to provide sample preparation services quickly and reduce sample transport costs. An example is the MPSU at Nordgold’s gold exploration project in Eastern Russia. “The presence of the on-site sample preparation facility has eliminated the need to transport the heavy drillcore and rock samples hundreds of kilometers by truck and rail to the SGS laboratory in Chita,” said Russ Calow, vice president of Global Chemistry, SGS Minerals Services. “Instead, the prepared sample pulps, weighing only 200 grams, are shipped by plane to Chita, saving significant money in transport and up to 10 days in transit time.”

SGS designs MSPUs to fit customer needs. “The choice of laboratory design depends on the sample processing flowsheet, volume of samples to be processed per day and the site conditions,” said Mr. Calow. According to him, the ability to customize mobile labs has been a key change in SGS’s mobile lab business. “The units that we have deployed in the Sahara Desert were sealed to reduce the impact of windblown sand on the operation, while the units in Siberia had substantial engineering to ensure air balance was maintained during the replacement of exhausted air with tempered replacement air,” he said.

SGS’s Minerals Services customers for geochemical MPSUs are mining and exploration firms. The labs are now standard offerings. “SGS Minerals Services developed the mobile laboratory service line because our customers want more services located directly at the mineral exploration project sites,” said Mr. Calow. “Given that these projects do not always turn into long-term mines, the site-based laboratory installation must be portable so that if the project ceases or changes focus, the laboratory can be readily moved to the next client’s site.” Currently, SGS only provides sample preparation services, which allows it to offer cost-effective solutions, according to him. “We’ve found that the practicality of mobilizing sample digestion and final instrumental measurement systems into container-type facilities can be technically challenging and not worth the risk and cost,” he told IBO.

However, expanding beyond sample preparation is not something SGS has ruled out, particularly since its customers have requested such services. “Clients are asking for analytical measurement systems that will give them qualitative data to quicken project decision making and reduce the overall number of samples submitted to the measurement laboratories,” explained Mr. Calow. “This is done by sorting the samples in the field. Portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and hyperspectral scanning instrument systems will all have a part to play in moving the laboratory closer to the project site.” Such portable instruments are already in use at SGS mobile lab sites.

Another firm working in the geochemical space is GF Environmental, a division of Germfree Laboratories. The firm’s mobile lab offerings are geared toward the mining, construction, refinery, petrochemical, manufacturing, environmental, and oil and gas sectors. GF custom builds mobile labs and also provides consulting. “[Customers] want us to come in, more like a lab manager or designer would, and spec out the equipment that would be appropriate for their mission,” said Vice President of Design Gene Joanen.

GF’s mobile lab business is growing across all end-markets. Mr. Joanen noted that due to the presence of fixed labs in developed countries, the need for mobile labs in developing countries is more prevalent. “The user is sometimes required by the country to keep the analysis in the country,” he explained. “[Other times,] a company may need the data faster than outsourcing can produce.” The locations of these labs are as varied as the uses for the labs. “We’re getting inquiries from all over the world,” explained Vice President of Sales Mike Aertker, citing, in particular, a concentration of orders from Africa, the Middle East, South America and Southeast Asia.

Mr. Aertker highlighted the quicker turnaround times provided by mobile labs in general. In addition, he said that GF’s mobile labs are advantageous because of the use of stainless steel casework rather than wood, due to its durability in hot, humid climates. The firm also provides alternate materials for cases in which stainless steel is incompatible with lab chemicals. “We produce a true laboratory environment with airflows similar to what you would find in a fixed laboratory anywhere, and that is differentiated from some mobile labs where they essentially take a van, gut it and call it a laboratory,” he said. “Where there’s more sensitive analysis going on and more sensitive equipment, you need a true laboratory environment.”

GF often assists its customers with the selection of sensitive lab instruments. The decision as to what instruments with which to equip the mobile labs is ultimately the customers’, but GF often provides recommendations. “If [customers] have a method that we need to go by, then that makes life easy,” said Mr. Joanen. “If there’s just a parameter list, and no benchmark or baseline or some specific data quality objective, then what I’m relying on is what other folks are doing that’s working for them in that industry.”

Water and air quality testing are increasingly popular applications for GF mobile labs, said Mr. Joanen. Water quality applications include stormwater runoff testing and quality control. For air quality, customers’ requests range from stack testing to ambient air quality monitoring to point- and non-point source assessment.

The mobile lab business will continue to grow as providers gain experience and improve mobile labs’ efficiency, according to Mr. Aertker. “What’s going to help the mobile laboratory business the most will be the components that are used in these laboratories getting better,” he said, citing air-conditioning units and generators as examples. GF makes its own containment equipment, such as fume hoods and biosafety cabinets, but does not make its own air-conditioning units or generators. Customers’ desire to test samples right away, even if not required to do so, is also likely to continue to impact the use of mobile labs, according to Mr. Aertker. “Many clients want everything delivered to them turnkey ready to start immediately after shipment,” he said.

One high-profile user of mobile labs is the FDA. The Office of Regulatory Affairs and Office of Regulatory Science’s (ORS) Microbiological and Chemical Mobile Lab Program operates two labs for food and drug testing: one for microbiology and one for chemistry. Each analytical lab is housed in a 44-foot trailer, and has separate RV command centers and preparatory trailers.

The FDA’s mobile lab programs are utilized to test foreign produce. The amount of foreign produce that reaches US ports has risen due to an increase in off-season demand, and quicker testing helps prevent tainted food from reaching the market, pull it from shelves and treat people who may have ingested it. “The microbiological mobile laboratory’s real-time capability of analyzing multiple samples with a 30-hour detection [time] using qPCR is a great advantage in immediately screening day of collection, high-risk perishable produce,” said FDA spokesperson Michelle Bolek.

Deciding where the FDA mobile labs will be deployed is a joint effort. “The ORS gathers intelligence for food surveillance activities or outbreak response from the Division of Import Operations, the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, and the Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation groups,” said Ms. Bolek.

The main benefit of the mobile labs is time savings, according to Ms. Bolek. The mobile labs allow the FDA to test samples in two to three days, compared with three to five days in a fixed lab. “The mobile labs allow the FDA to transport and establish laboratory capabilities virtually anywhere in the continental US and are capable of functioning as a semi-self-contained regulatory screening laboratory,” she said. FDA employees can collect samples at the site and deliver them to the mobile lab the same day.

The instrumentation used in the mobile labs must meet certain criteria. According to Ms. Bolek, instruments must be able to analyze multiple samples as quickly as possible. Another requirement is durability. “Due to the mobility of the mobile lab, the instruments must be able to withstand rugged conditions,” she said. “Many of the delicate instruments used for chemical analysis are very sensitive to vibrations and thus not available currently for use in the mobile lab.”

As the FDA assesses its mobile lab program, changes being considered include how to equip the labs for optimal efficiency. “The next generation of mobile laboratories must be larger and designed with a unidirectional flow,” said Ms. Bolek. “They must be built with benchtop air-shock systems to withstand vibrations during transport, so that sensitive instruments will be immediately available for use upon arrival.”