Porous sensors for real-time monitoring of water quality risks

Objective

The unpredictable contamination of microbial communities in aquatic environments is a global concern for drinking water suppliers and aquaculture producers. Drinking water treatment expenditures, mainly caused by excessive proliferation of harmful cyanobacteria can cost over €150 million/year in European countries. The scenario aggravates when considering the debilitating attacks from pathogenic bacteria in aquaculture cages, generating global economic losses of over $25 billion. In both industrial sectors, the mitigation costs scales with microbial detection delay. Existent monitoring solutions for water quality mostly rely on time-consuming and operator-dependent measurements of nitrogen and phosphorus fractions, temperature and dissolved oxygen or in using chlorophyll a as a proxy. Yet, these approaches fail to deliver effective and real-time detection of microbial contamination. Within the ERC-funded GREEN project we have identified a promising commercial application which by means of ultrasensitive electrophysiology allows unprecedent real-time detection of harmful microorganisms in aquatic environments. An international patent has been filed and two research articles published. In addition, two distinct industrial partners and a state laboratory are committed to support and actively participate in PROTEGE. The breakthrough has been realised by the development of ultra-sensitive porous conducting polyurethane foams which exploits the large electrode area, maximizing the double-layer capacitance and concomitant microbial detection sensitivity. The main aim of PROTEGE is to demonstrate a working prototype in the industrial partners facilities, capable of real-time detection of cyanobacteria in water-supply reservoirs and pathogenic bacteria in aquaculture cages, and to develop a business and exploitation plan for technology commercialization of a market-oriented prototype with real-time telemetry data.