West County to pioneer new water testing technology

It means action could be taken faster if there’s a pollution incident

A new system is being developed in the West Country to speed up how long it takes to test water quality.

The University of Plymouth and Molendotech say it could finish in about 15 minutes – comapred with the previous time of 48 hours.

It comes as the number of storm overflow spills into the South West’s waters has doubled in a year.

In Devon and Cornwall alone there are 150 bathing water sites – and experts say monitoring the water quality of all the coast in near real time would be challenging and costly.

Professor Simon Jackson, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Molendotech, said: “We are very pleased and excited to secure this funding.

“It will enable us to complete the development of an automated version of our water testing technology. This will allow a step change in water quality monitoring and is something the water industry and stakeholders need.

“Having real-time, frequent assessment of bathing water quality from different locations will allow the development of meaningful water quality maps that users and regulators can use to inform decision making and guide practices. It will be great to be working with collaborators at the University of Plymouth to develop this innovative device.”

The new project is looking to develop a remote, faster and more efficient means of testing the region’s seas and alerting authorities to any potential health hazards that are discovered.

The new initiative is being developed by Molendotech Ltd and the University of Plymouth, who between them have considerable expertise in marine autonomous systems and advanced water testing technologies.

Its aim will be to offer remote near real-time water quality assessments through an autonomous water sampling and testing device that builds on existing technology already developed by the project partners.

The project will leverage the use of Bacterisk, a near real-time bacteria risk assessment kit that provides an assessment of water quality in 15 minutes (instead of other methods that currently take longer than 48 hours) and adapt it to allow the remote assessment of water quality.

The new system could allow water samples to be collected from the seabed to the surface as frequently as every 30 minutes. The results would then be communicated automatically to those responsible for identifying and managing public health issues.

Molendotech is a spinout company of the University of Plymouth, and works out of two University-managed facilities – the Brixham Laboratory in Devon and the Health and Wellbeing Innovation Centre in Truro, Cornwall.

Dr Keiron Fraser, Associate Professor in Marine Conservation, said: “The quality of bathing water in the UK has been a hot topic for many years.

“This funding will allow us to work alongside Molendotech to develop their cutting edge Backterisk monitoring system into a fully autonomous product, utilising the considerable expertise at the University of Plymouth in marine autonomy.

“The product we plan to develop will potentially allow real-time monitoring of bathing waters for water users, rather than the current weekly measurements. Therefore, providing faster detection of potential health hazards and improved safety for water users.”

The project is one of 12 to have been offered a share of almost £1.85 million of funding from the Innovate UK Launchpad for the Great South West.

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