SBIR Phase I: Real-Time Monitoring System for Multiple Metallic Contaminants in Environmental and Industrial Waters

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of a system that allows for rapid detection and measurement of the concentration of metal ions in water with a view towards application of this system to monitoring water being released into environmental waters by industrial companies. Companies discharging water into the environment maintain wastewater treatment facilities, which frequently use chemicals to remove pollutants from wastewater. Controlling the efficiency of the treatment process requires real-time monitoring of the treated water. The proposed system will be capable of providing this capability, which will allow for optimum use of treatment chemicals ? currently treatment chemicals are used in excess to account for potentially large concentration changes of the target pollutant to be removed. Thus, a real-time sensor system reduces both environmental impact and cost of treatment. The technology employs optical fibers, which are chemically modified with sensor molecules whose luminescence properties change in the presence of the target pollutant. The broader/commercial impacts of this research are that this technology for real-time monitoring is not only capable of meeting a critical need for real-time wastewater-treatment process control, but can potentially address a range of monitoring tasks requiring a robust, portable, and field-deployable measurement system while offering significant cost advantages compared to existing laboratory-based systems. Thus, the impact of this project is beyond the initially targeted application to environmental monitoring in general, exploiting the capability of the technology to accommodate sensors for a variety of pollutants.