Billions of dollars are spent annually for sample collection and laboratory
analyses.
Can this be done automatically like in meteorology?
We, Øyvind Mikkelsen and Knut Schrøder (Professor) work
at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) within the
field of Analytical Chemistry. Our research is focused on the development
of methods for environmental monitoring. In particular we are dealing
with methods that open for remote and automatic monitoring without the
need for frequent attendance.
Remote monitoring of heavy metals like copper,
cadmium, mercury etc. is of special importance. For that reason a very
extensive research has been carried out internationally to develop suitable
methods as no acceptable methods were available.
However, about seven years ago we invented
ideas that possibly could be applied for remote and automatic monitoring
of important heavy metals, consequently we started an extensive method
development process. We have succeeded to obtain very satisfactory results
over a long testing period, being quality assured by frequent comparison
with laboratory methods. We have documented our results in a great number
of international publications and also presented method and results
on several scientific conferences and specialist groups. Automatically
remote measuring stations are established with convincing results. Here
we measure drinking water quality (with respect to heavy metals) in
drinking water, effluents, from a disclosed copper mine, scrubbing water
from an incineration plant, and control process water and effluent water
from metallurgical industry. For practical reasons, most of our activities
are set up close to Trondheim, but measuring stations in Beijing, Kina
is under construction in collaboration with Chinese environmental authorities,
and also in France, Svalbard, Iceland and on the Swedish side of the
border near Trondheim. Contacts in Finland will also be established.
Up to now, all our stations are established as a part of our research
in methodology and stability, but we are now commercializing this after
obtaining good measuring references through our recently established
company SensAqua AS (Remote Sensing in Aquatic Systems, www.sensaqua.com),
in collaboration with Innovation Norway and Innovation Mid-Norway.
SensAqua AS is now producing and marketing the new system for automatic
and remote monitoring heavy metals in water, effluents and industrial
processes. Very extensive development and research is carried out by
the collaborating research group at NTNU, not only for academic and
educational purposes, but primarily further to improve the measuring
system for environmental monitoring.