IRTH
CO2 Respirometer

Solvita is a simple yet highly sophisticated CO2 tool for monitoring carbon dioxide emissions as they naturally occur in moist biological samples such as soil. IRTH ® (pronounced “earth”) is an elegant and exciting means to observe and precisely measure biological decay or deterioration of soils, plant litter, composts and more.

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 16: IRTH Respirometry for Long Term Carbon Studies

One of the main applications for the IRTH® CO2 Respirometer is measuring soil biological reactions. The preferred method uses fresh, moist soil to measure natural basal respiration. IRTH® can also measure disturbance events when dried, processed soils are re-moistened to produce a CO2 pulse or burst.
In addition, IRTH® can measure biodegradation rate or decay in organic residues such as bio-plastics, plant litter, mixed-waste materials, food scraps and compost products. These results provide valuable information to derive a carbon loss rate or a stability index.
IRTH® offers the flexibility to conduct any of these tests with varying amounts of samples and produce results in just hours or days.

IRTH® stores and calculates results in several fashions: It reports the internal atmospheric CO2 change during treatment, allowing you to test certain assumptions, and it calculates overall decay rate as CO2-C in relation to the original sample weight. It produces a finished, client-friendly report showing test parameters. Use IRTH® on an ongoing basis for 1-day, 3-day or 7-day runs to build a response spreadsheet for a series of treatments. No other instrument combines all of these features in such a simple, flexible and cost-effective package.