Project description
Innovative sensor for pesticide and nitrate monitoring in the water supply
Freshwater pesticide and nitrate pollution poses a risk to public health and the environment. Hence, water providers need contamination treatment protocols to protect water supplies and avoid economic losses through shutdowns. The EU-funded CoPs project will develop an innovative solution that rapidly detects specific water pollutants and transmits real-time data on contaminant levels and movements in natural water systems before they reach water infrastructures and consumers. The aim is to scale up and demonstrate the production of the CoPs sensor platform for continuous in-situ water monitoring, targeting water suppliers as well as farmers and private well owners. CoPs will also dramatically improve data quality and quantity and provide a data analysis and hazardous pollutants alert service to monitoring agencies.
Objective
CoPs combines the expertise of the 3 industry partners – ground-breaking electrochemical sensors developed by IPM, miniaturised electronics customised by PAL and CAU’s geo-monitoring hardware and software – and is expected to bring economic, social and environmental impacts, including towards achieving UN SDGs and EU policy.
Pesticide and nitrate pollution in fresh waters pose a significant risk to public health and the environment. Exposure to pesticides can lead to several cancer types or Parkinson’s disease, while nitrate can result in “Blue Baby Syndrome” and cause eutrophication. According to latest estimates, getting sick from drinking tap water in Europe had a societal cost of €220 million. Meanwhile, inefficient water monitoring based on sampling and lab analyses does not provide early alerts. Water suppliers need to meet EU monitoring requirements and react instantly with contamination treatment protocols, protect water supplies and avoid economic losses through shutdowns.
Our innovative solution rapidly detects specific water pollutants and transmit real-time data on contaminant levels and movements in natural water systems before they could reach water infrastructures and consumers. It saves both time and costs (by at least 40%), it vastly improves data quality and quantity, and it provides a data analysis and hazardous pollutants alert service to monitoring agencies.
Our goal is to mature, scale-up and demonstrate the production of the CoPs sensor platform for continuous in-situ water monitoring, targeting water suppliers as initial clients, and with the potential to create new markets within the agriculture and private well owner segments.
A successful CoPs project will allow us to create measurable impacts on our companies, quantified as accumulated revenue of €217m in five years (2021-2025), equal to accumulated operating profit of €86.05m creating 101 full time employments in our value chain, and generating €21.83m in reduced costs for our end-users
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
IA - Innovation actionCoordinator
3400 LIER
Norway
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.