Monitoring process fluids in papermaking systems

A method of monitoring a papermaking system containing impurities and containing a dosage of a treating component to determine the level of treating under operating conditions is disclosed which adds to the papermaking system a water soluble fluorescent tracer in an amount proportioned to the amount of treating component in the system, the fluorescent tracer being inert to the papermaking environment. A sample solution is withdrawn from the system containing both the component and tracer and the withdrawn sample is subjected to an analysis which comprises the step of comparing the tracer concentration to a standard to determine the concentration of tracer in the sample. After determining the variance of the treating component dosage as compared to the standard, the dosage is adjusted by changing the volume of water or the dosage of treating component in the papermaking system to maintain an acceptable operating range of concentration for the treating component. The method may be used for detecting leakage from the system.