Real-time condition monitoring and early warning of failure of potable water using novel fluorescence spectroscopy instrumentation

《水工业法》、《供水（水质）条例》和《私营供水条例》规定，供水公司有义务在供水时间和地点提供卫生的水。供应不适合人类消费的水是一种刑事犯罪。通过参考指定给各种微生物学、化学和物理参数的规定浓度来定义不良性。微生物参数的规定浓度或值依赖于指示生物，如大肠菌群、大肠杆菌。大肠杆菌和菌落计数。除符合标准外，水中不得含有任何浓度足以对人类健康构成潜在危险的微生物或寄生虫。为了帮助保障供水质量，迫切需要提供新的实时水质评估工具和技术。在这里提出了一个创新的解决方案，这个问题是利用饮用水的荧光特性，通过开发新的仪器。所有的水都会发出荧光;然而，大部分荧光都是在紫外线下发出的，所以人眼是看不见的。然而，现成的设备可以检测到这种荧光。以前的工作已经确定了荧光和河流（即原）水质之间的关系。具体地，已经表明，在220- 240 nm或270- 280 nm激发下在340-370 nm处发射的荧光（类富里酸荧光）指示微生物活性，而在300- 360 nm激发下在400- 480 nm处发射的荧光（类富里酸荧光）指示有机碳的存在。荧光光谱法对微生物材料的敏感性为水质评估技术带来了重大变化，超越了指示生物的过时和有限使用，以提高客户的供应安全性。该项目的重点是设计、严格测试（从实验室到现场原型）和实施第一个全LED双峰饮用水质量评估工具，用于在配水系统中部署。这将是一个重大的进步，在实时评估水质和饮用水分配系统的主动管理。潜在的应用和影响，从这项研究的好处是显着的。该项目的可交付成果将对以下方面产生直接影响：1.国家的健康（通过改善网络供应和安全水资源的管理）和2。通过优化网络的采样和分析来节省成本，并与当前方法相比预期降低分析成本，从而为国家带来财富。这些影响的受益者是多种多样的，包括：1.公众，2。商业私营部门（如仪器制造商和私营水务公司），3.监管机构（例如，在英国的环境署和饮用水检查局），4.立法者和规划者，5。英国和国际学者。

The Water Industry Act, the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations and the Private Water Supplies Regulations place a duty on water companies to supply water that is wholesome at the time and point of supply. It is a criminal offence to supply water that is unfit for human consumption. Wholesomeness is defined by reference to prescribed concentrations assigned to various microbiological, chemical and physical parameters. Prescribed concentrations or values for microbiological parameters rely on indicator organisms, such as coliform bacteria, E. coli and colony counts. In addition to meeting standards, water must not contain any micro-organism or parasite at a concentration which would constitute a potential danger to human health. To help safeguard quality of water supply, there is an urgent national and international need to provide novel real-time water quality assessment tools and techniques. It is proposed here that an innovative solution to this issue is to exploit the fluorescence characteristics of drinking water through the development of novel instrumentation. All water fluoresces; however most of the fluorescence is emitted in the ultraviolet, so it is invisible to the human eye. However, off-the-shelf equipment can detect this fluorescence. Previous work has identified relationships between fluorescence and river (i.e. raw) water quality. Specifically, it has been shown that fluorescence emitted at 340-370 nm under excitation at 220-240nm or 270-280nm (tryptophan-like fluorescence) is indicative of microbial activity, whilst fluorescence emitted at 400-480nm under excitation at 300-360nm (fulvic-like fluorescence) is indicative of the presence of organic carbon. The sensitivity of fluorescence spectroscopy to microbial material presents the opportunity to effect a major step change in water quality assessment techniques, moving beyond the dated and limited use of indicator organisms, to enhance security of supply to customers. This project focuses on the design, rigorous testing (progressing from bench top to field prototype) and implementation of the first all-LED dual peak potable water quality assessment tool for deployment within water distribution systems. This would represent a significant advance in the real-time assessment of water quality and proactive management of potable water distribution systems.The potential application and benefits of the impacts from this research are significant. The project's deliverables will have a direct impact upon:1. the nation's health (through its improvements to network supply and management of safe water resources) and2. the nation's wealth through cost savings achieved through optimisation of sampling and analysis of networks and an anticipated reduction in analysis costs compared to current approaches.The beneficiaries of these impacts are diverse and include:1. the general public,2. the commercial private sector (e.g. instrument manufacturers and private water companies),3. regulators (e.g. in the UK the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate),4. legislators and planners, 5. UK-based and international academics.