Project: Water Monitoring System (WMS) is a novel method to identify bacteria and parasites in real time

The international market for water treatment makes high demands on the efficiency and innovation of each and every enterprise. There are more than 600 000 water treatment plants world wide that are all potential receivers of WMS. Today there are no real-time alternatives for early warning systems when it comes to monitoring and identifying parasites and bacteria in water. Sub-micron and micron particle sizes and their concentration in water is important as bacteria and parasites attach and hide to the particles. Therefore, cutting edge fundamental and applied research activities related to these processes are of very high importance for the further development of society. This will not only benefit for the future of urban areas, but also for many water and recycling water plants. Real time monitoring, real time optimization and control of the treatment process are not sufficiently available in today’s marketplace and will set the drive for the present project. _x000D__x000D_The project brings together two SME companies, one research institute with complementary competence and end users. The end users in Sweden are Norrvatten one of the biggest drinking water treatment plant and the CO applied research test bed of Sweden Hammarby Sjöstadsverk. Both of them have expressed a need for the technique. The other end users are Epcore the water company of Alberta Canada who are familiar with PML technology and issued a letter expressing interest to evaluate the technology. In Israel Mekorot, the national water company is reviewing the project for their CO water plant called the Eshkol plant._x000D_Aqua-Q of Sweden, a leading company in water processing and real time monitoring/sampling and PML of Israel with its unique "In Process monitoring laser particle analyze"-technique. IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, has profound related knowledge within water treatment technologies. The cooperation between the Ps involved will secure a high level of expertise within the areas of monitoring and processing of water._x000D__x000D_Aqua-Q applies well defined and proven laser technology to monitor and classify existing contaminants in water. They have more than 20 years of experience within applied research from Swedish water treatment plants. On-line water analysis and sampling is fundamental when a better understanding of the water quality in a production line is needed. Together with PML´s novel "In Process particle analyzer system", a cluster measurement device will be developed that will be able to characterize water contamination down to the sub-micron range and to detect pathogenic organisms and specifically identify live or dead E.Coli bacteria, Giardia and Cryptosporidium parasites. IVL´s experience in the solving of environmental problems within both the business sector and the community, will be instrumental in introducing novel processes based on the information derived from the cluster detection and monitoring system._x000D__x000D_The end users participating in both Sweden, Canada and Israel will evaluate the technique on-site anf furthermore, will also contribute to specifications in the beginning of the project. _x000D__x000D_State of the art_x000D_Aqua-Q offers the state of the art of monitoring as well as pre-study, advanced statistical evaluation and dynamic fingerprinting services coupled with laboratory analysis and together with IVL, cleaning processes. PML offers an unprecedented capability of particle monitoring in wide size and concentration range. This includes sub-micron particle size; concentration measurement and fingerprinting/clustering to sub groups. The combination of the two technologies set a new level of cluster instrument that will give the ultimate information in water monitoring and will offer advanced processes for cleaning._x000D_

Acronym	WMS (Reference Number: 7732)
Duration	01/08/2013 - 15/09/2015
Project Topic	Our goal is to develop a novel process water analyzer that can detect biological contamination by a novel sub-micron sensor; clustering the particles and identify specific parasites and bacteria. The project stems from the know-how; technology and experience of the 3 Ps, Aqua-Q, PML and IVL.
Network	Eurostars
Call	Eurostars Cut-Off 9

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
3	Aqua-Q AB	Coordinator	Sweden
3	IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet AB	Partner	Sweden
3	Particle Monitoring by Laser	Partner	Israel