Objective
* To establish a database of hazardous pollutants found in water and identify suitable testing locations in the 4 countries involved in the programme.
* To develop a real time, in situ and chemically specific technique based on optical spectroscopy to detect multi-component pollutant mixtures at concentrations down to a few parts per billion.
* To develop or modify an existing (portable) spectrometer which can be used outside the benign laboratory environment for, Raman, fluorescence and absorption spectroscopy.
* To develop high light gathering fibre optic probes and delivery systems compatible with the spectroscopic platform to allow remote spectroscopic measurements in rivers, lakes, land fill sites or the open sea, in areas subject to chemical pollution arising from industrial or agricultural activities.
* To develop chemical concentrators to enhance the sensitivities of the spectroscopic techniques (this is particularly important in the case of Raman spectroscopy) compatible with the fibre optic probes and their aqueous working environment.
* To establish a library of spectra measured in drinking, recreational (lakes or reservoirs), and sea water containing pollutants at known concentration levels.
* To develop neural networks which in conjunction with the library of spectra can be used to identify both the pollutants and their concentrations.
* To train young scientists in various aspects of optical spectroscopy, design of fibre optic systems and probes, computer control of the system, data collection and presentation.
* To demonstrate the fully characterized system to potential users.
Expected Outcome
The outcome of this programme is that the partners will have researched and developed a novel spectroscopic instrument deployable at any arbitrary location, such as the effluent pipe at a factory, capable of making remote measurements of water quality via optical fibre probes. If commercialised the system is likely to be purchased by organisation involved in monitoring water quality and environmentally responsible manufacturing companies.
* To undertake a literature search together with direct contact with local water authorities and similar monitoring agencies to establish acceptable levels of common pollutants in drinking water and in the water returned to a local river extracted for use in an industrial process.
* Using laboratory equipment currently available to the partners, perform a series of experiments on water samples containing known concentrations of specific pollutants, to establish which of the three spectroscopic techniques offers the necessary sensitivity to detect these pollutants at the specified contamination levels. These experiments will be performed using laser diode and broad band sources.
* Design optical fibre probes to transmit the range of wavelengths necessary for the spectroscopic analysis and the fibre optic probes to transfer the optically generated signals to the spectrometer for analysis.
* Explore the possibilities of using polymer concentrators or sol-gel films to enhance the sensitivity of the system where the signal to noise is poor for specific pollutants.
* Purchase (and modify if necessary) or develop a suitable (portable) spectroscopic platform which can operate efficiently at the wavelengths required to make the pollution measurements and be interfaced with the optical fibre probes.
* Establish a database of spectra for water samples with known levels of single contaminants and mixtures and develop neural networks in order to recover this information from unknown samples.
* Undertake trails with the system at previously identified locations liable to suffer from pollution.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwater treatment processesdrinking water treatment processes
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental scienceshydrology
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringremote sensing
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticsspectroscopyabsorption spectroscopy
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticsfibre optics
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Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
CT2 7N2 Canterbury
United Kingdom