• Ability to screen soil contamination without prior knowledge of source or nature of the contaminants – it measures toxicity
• Compared with sole use of traditional (chemical) laboratory analysis, the screening process using the PTS saves substantial cost and time in decision-making and remediation efforts on brownfield sites
• Initial training and an instruction manual provided for ease of use by non-specialists
• One-time use consumables reduce the likelihood of error and/or cross-contamination
• Provides near real-time outputs for cost-effective and timely decision-making
• Provides a complete picture of toxicity of soil compared to individual component identification from chemical tests
• Chemical tests alone miss out the synergistic effect of the presence of two or more contaminants that can yield a toxic effect
• Wet soil samples can be accommodated compared to traditional chemical testing protocols which necessitate drying (resulting in the loss of contaminants)
• Auditable trail with unique IDs for soil samples and geo-referencing, using the integrated GPS module
• Toxicity maps using GIS (Geographic Information System) data can be produced to identify ‘hotspots’.

The PTS system has a number of distinctive features to provide efficient screening of soil toxicity onsite:

• A unique two-cell (rather than standard one-cell) measurement system for simultaneous collation of data from the ‘control’ and ‘sample’ chambers. Single-cell chambers for measurement of light output are found to be error-prone and may result in false negatives/positives.
• The exclusive temperature-regulated PTS instrument ensures consistent light output from the temperature-sensitive biosensor.
• The integration of a GPS module provides exclusivity to the PTS.