Acronym AquaMonitor
Category
Aquaculture
Title Optical fibre sensors for water quality monitoring applied to the determination of dissolved carbon dioxide in aquaculture Programme Nat. Programme (supported by ESIF)
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National-European
Coordinator institution
IMAR - Institute of Marine Research (Portugal)
Institutions involved
INESC TEC - Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (Portugal) ,
CIIMAR - Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (Portugal) ,
UP - University of Porto (Portugal) ,
Start year 2011 End year 2013 Funding (€) € 139,885 Website http://aquamonitor.wix.com/aquamonitor Summary Water quality monitoring is essential in the assessment and management of ecosystems health and human safety. Still,determination of chemical and biological parameters is associated with expensive time consuming methods, and few solutions for on-line analysis are available. In this context, a multidisciplinary team will address the development of new solutions for real time remote analysis of chemical parameters based in optical fiber technology and chemically sensitive membranes. Detection of dissolved CO2 in Aquaculture will be addressed as model system for technology validation. In times where natural fish stocks are threaten worldwide by increasing human demand, Aquaculture industry assumes a primary role in the balance between needs and ecosystem sustainability. This strategic importance was recognized by Portugal by establishing it as priority with PROMAR (Plano Operacional Pesca 2007-2013) where production is expected to increase 4x in this period. Such increase requires intensive inland systems with high fish loads, high water consumption and large effluent discharges. Among strategies seeking economical and ecological sustainability are hyperintensive systems, using stackable shallow raceways, drastically reducing production area and water consumption (recirculation >90%). Intensive Aquaculture systems result in effluents rich in CO2, solid wastes and nutrients. Water reuse implies advanced treatment systems, requiring on-line control of parameters such as dissolved O2 and CO2, ammonia or pH, in order to maintain efficiency and ensure fish welfare and growth. Determination of dissolved CO2 in such environment is not easy. This conviction was reinforced by conclusions of European Project ?Raceways' (COOP-CT-016869), where members of this team participated, and it was verified that present methods are not satisfactory for Aquaculture industry demands. While electrochemical methods suffer from a diversity of chemical interferences, instruments based in absorbance spectroscopy work in gas phase requiring separation membranes that suffer from biofouling. Techniques relying on luminescent or colorimetric pH indicators have been evolving fast, but are hardly multiplexable. In this context, interferometric platforms where refractive index changes induced by the analyte in a sensitive membrane are measured are highly attractive. They can be based in standard telecom optoelectronics, lowering cost and promoting multipoint, multiparameter capability and real time remote monitoring. In this project the development of new configurations for multipoint optical fiber based chemical sensing platform will be addressed in an Aquaculture framework aiming for dissolved CO2 detection, following the methodologies: (a) Development of sensitive fiber probes based in new interferometric configurations with tailored spectral filters like fiber Bragg gratings[9] or long period gratings. (b) Development of sensitive membranes that undergo analyte dependent refractive index changes, by incorporation of functional groups with affinity to the analyte in hybrid sol-gel hosts. (c) Implementation of wavelength based and interferometric interrogation techniques for high sensitivity detection. (d) Establishment of wavelength and coherence multiplexing topologies for multipoint detection. (e) Implementation of reference schemes to avoid cross-sensitivity for physical and chemical parameters. (f) Establishment of analytical procedures to test and calibrate the developed sensors. (g) Validation of the technology in real aquaculture tanks To accomplish these challenges a team with experience in complementary domains has been assembled: (a) INESC Porto optoelectronics Unit (Associated Lab - rate Excellent) - more than 15 years experience in development of new fiber optic sensors, dedicated infrastructures and know-how in interferometry, multiplexing, and high sensitivity configurations. (b)The Chemistry Dpt. of FCUP - experience in development of sensitive membranes for electrochemistry[11] will provide knowledge to couple optical fiber tips with selectivity/sensitivity to target analytes. (c) The development of a sensor for aquaculture will only be successful if from early stages of development all constrains and operational conditions are known. This knowledge is provided by CIIMAR (Associated Lab with CCMAR - rate Excellent) with long experience in the study of such systems.
Keywords
Water quality;
Water management;
Land-based aquaculture;
Sensors;
Engineering;
Recirculating systems;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
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