Real time tracing of clay movement in fresh and marine waters as carriers of pollutants, or indicators of sediment transport and deposition

实时追踪淡水和海水中作为污染物载体的粘土运动，或沉积物运输和沉积的指标

• 批准号: NE/N012089/1
• 负责人: John Quinton
• 金额: $ 2.05万
• 依托单位: Lancaster University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2015 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FN012089%2F1
• 关键词: Real; time; tracing; clay; movement

Clay is a key part of many of the world's soils, due to its ease of transport in flowing water it is an important means by which pollutants are dispersed in the environment. Such pollutants include: phosphorus, potassium, heavy metals and pesticides. Clay particles are moved by both overland and subsurface flow, which may then enter lakes, rivers and the sea. Understanding how suspended clays move with time in the environment has been hampered by lack of a way to easily observe this using suitable tracers. In this case, tracers are particles moving in unison with other water-borne clay particles, but more easily observed.Through a NERC funded PhD, a unique clay tracer (CT) has been developed allowing clay particle movement by water to be seen in real-time without altering how the particles move or needing sampling methods that progressively remove the CT or disrupt processes one is observing. As the CT consists of clay particles coated in a fluorescent dye already used for environmental monitoring, the CT is suitable for large-scale environmental use with minimal environmental risk. Several valuable commercial applications have been identified for CTs within the environmental consultancy (EC) market including understanding:- Potential sources, pathways and sinks of clay sized particles and associated pollutants in water eg where pollutants are deposited and how those found in marine /freshwater sediments got there.- The effectiveness of mitigation measures for trapping and removing clay sized material from surface waters.- Understanding the movement of clay sized material through industrial processes e.g waste recycling facilities.- Tracing the movement of polluted or nuisance wind-blown dusts from industrial sites.A basic commercial strategy supported by intellectual property protection is in place for the CT, plus some understanding of the EC market and benefits of the CT over its competitors. However, market research expertise is needed to help us better understand the market, its size, identify potential ECs interested in using the technology and what type of CT product these businesses need. With this information we'll be better placed to establish demonstration projects and commercial relationships to get the CT used by ECs in the above and other applications. We also need to understand: who can produce the CT in 100Kg quantities, check production of tonne quantities won't need REACh registration and see if a strategy for strengthening our patent application can work. Our objectives are:1 Subscribe to Environment Analyst (E An.) and digest the information in several global and UK EC market and company reports, to understand the CT market size.2 Identify and access any other significant sources of market research to understand the CT market in the UK and other significant markets: Europe, North America, Australia, Middle East, China and Africa.3 Use lists of major then smaller EC companies identified by E An. in the UK and globally to determine: who uses particle tracers, for what purposes and if our CT is of interest.4 Conduct open interviews initially focusing on UK ECs likely to be interested in a CT to confirm if CTs are really of interest to them and answer many other questions.5 Undertake a SWOT analysis on the CT.6 Identify an initial route to commercialise the CT and a list of ECs for initial discussions.7 Identify companies able to produce CTs in 100Kg quantities, and understand: any scale-up issues, costs for CTs of different particle size ranges, any legislative issues and recommended storage options.8 Check if both CT components needed for larger-scale production are already REACh registered by potential suppliers, minimising the risk that further scale-up will need registration of the CT itself.9 Determine via patent searches if a route exists to strengthen our CT patent application.UK Stakeholders: Inventors, EA, SEPA, ECs, CT producers.

粘土是世界上许多土壤的重要组成部分，由于其易于在流动的水中运输，它是污染物分散在环境中的重要手段。这些污染物包括：磷、钾、重金属和杀虫剂。粘土颗粒通过地表和地下水流移动，然后可能进入湖泊，河流和海洋。了解悬浮粘土如何在环境中随时间移动一直受到阻碍，缺乏一种方法来方便地观察这一点，使用合适的示踪剂。在这种情况下，示踪剂是与其他水性粘土颗粒一致移动的颗粒，但更容易观察到。通过NERC资助的博士学位，开发了一种独特的粘土示踪剂（CT），可以实时观察粘土颗粒在水中的移动，而不会改变颗粒的移动方式，也不需要逐渐去除CT或破坏观察过程的采样方法。由于CT由涂有荧光染料的粘土颗粒组成，这种荧光染料已经用于环境监测，因此CT适合大规模环境使用，环境风险最小。在环境咨询（EC）市场中，CT已经确定了几个有价值的商业应用，包括了解：-水中粘土大小颗粒和相关污染物的潜在来源，途径和汇，例如污染物沉积的地方以及海洋/淡水沉积物中发现的污染物是如何到达那里的。从地表水沃茨中收集和清除粘土大小物质的缓解措施的有效性。了解粘土大小的材料通过工业过程的运动，例如废物回收设施。追踪工业场地产生的污染或滋扰性扬尘的移动情况。CT的基本商业战略由知识产权保护支持，加上对EC市场的一些了解以及CT相对于竞争对手的优势。然而，市场研究专业知识需要帮助我们更好地了解市场，其规模，确定有兴趣使用该技术的潜在EC以及这些企业需要什么类型的CT产品。有了这些信息，我们将更好地建立示范项目和商业关系，让EC在上述和其他应用中使用CT。我们还需要了解：谁能生产100公斤的CT，检查吨的生产量将不需要REACh注册，看看加强我们的专利申请的战略是否可行。我们的目标是：1 Subscribe to Environment Analyst（E An.）并消化几个全球和英国电子商务市场和公司报告中的信息，以了解CT市场规模。2识别和访问任何其他重要的市场研究来源，以了解英国和其他重要市场的CT市场：欧洲，北美，澳大利亚，中东，中国和非洲。3使用由E An确定的主要然后是较小的电子商务公司的列表。在英国和全球范围内，以确定：他使用粒子追踪器，4首先对可能对CT感兴趣的英国EC进行公开访谈，以确认他们是否真的对CT感兴趣，并回答许多其他问题。5对CT进行SWOT分析。6确定CT商业化的初步路线和EC名单，以进行初步讨论。7确定能够生产100公斤CT的公司，并了解：任何规模扩大问题、不同粒度范围CT的成本、任何立法问题和推荐的储存选择。8检查大规模生产所需的两种CT组件是否已经由潜在供应商注册为REACh，最大限度地降低进一步扩大规模需要注册CT本身的风险。9通过专利检索确定是否存在加强CT专利申请的途径。英国利益相关者：发明人，EA，SEPA，EC，CT生产商。