Remote Automated Water Testing System Development

水对我们的生活至关重要，是我们最宝贵的资源，但我们缺乏快速、可靠和现场监测水资产质量的能力。通过基于分析实验室的技术进行的传统水质分析方法复杂、耗时且成本高。通过结合生物学和工程学，FREDsense技术公司开发了一个屡获殊荣的生物传感器平台，该平台使用活细胞快速检测和报告水生化学物质和污染物，而无需在实验室运送样品进行昂贵的分析。该平台已被证明是一种快速、用户友好的水监测技术，可以直接在现场分析复杂的样品，而无需漫长的准备步骤。然而，该公司面临着一个主要障碍——目前人工注水阻碍了该平台在偏远地区的应用。南阿尔伯塔理工学院（SAIT）和FREDsense提议推进公司的初步开发和设计一种自动水质监测生物传感器，旨在与他们的现场就绪电化学探测器（FRED®）一起工作。SAIT和FREDsense之间完成的Engage拨款为自动水采样器制定了基线设计和初步计划。这个为期三年的项目将建立一个功能齐全的自动化生物传感器原型，用于水质监测，能够自动收集水样，评估样本中的污染物并无线传输数据。样机将在实验室和现场进行测试。防止水中砷和其他污染物的不良影响的机会正在接近商业解决方案，这将使石油和天然气、采矿、农业和其他工业以及社区和市政当局受益。这个项目产生的价格合理、准确的便携式自动水质传感器设备有可能在世界各地的水质问题上得到应用。

Water is essential to our lives and is our most precious resource, yet our ability to monitor the quality of water assets quickly, reliably, and on site is lacking. Traditional water quality analysis methods conducted through analytical laboratory-based technologies are complex, time consuming and costly. By combining biology and engineering, FREDsense Technologies Corporation developed an award winning biosensor platform, which uses living cells to quickly detect and report water-borne chemicals and contaminants, without the need to ship samples for costly analysis at a laboratory. The platform has been proven to be a rapid, user-friendly water monitoring technique that enables analysis of complex samples directly in the field without lengthy preparation steps. However, the company is facing one major obstacle - the current manual water injection hinders application of the platform in remote areas. The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) and FREDsense propose to advance the company's initial development and design of an automated water quality monitoring biosensor designed to work with their Field-Ready Electrochemical Detector (FRED®). The Engage grant completed between SAIT and FREDsense developed a baseline design and preliminary plan for the automated water sampler. This three year project will build a fully functional prototype automated biosensor for water quality monitoring capable of automatic water sample collection, evaluating the sample for contaminants and wirelessly transferring data. The prototype will be tested in the laboratory and the field. The opportunity to protect against the ill effects of arsenic and other containments in water is moving closer to a commercial solution that will be benefit the oil and gas, mining, agriculture and other industries, as well as communities and municipalities. Affordable, accurate portable automated water quality sensor device resulting from this project has the potential to be applied around the world where water quality is a concern.