SBIR-STTR Award

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project addresses a great demand for in-situ chemical sensor technology with ability to (1) Measure with high resolution the environmental footprint of agricultural and urban development, and (2) Identify potential safety issues related to drinking water quality. High concentrations of nutrients (e.g. nitrate, nitrite, orthophosphate) in surface waters are the source of environmental, public health, and economic issues. Active monitoring of nutrient concentrations in surface waters such as estuaries, lakes and rivers is critical in assessing their health and implementing timely action to minimize ecosystem degradation. This SBIR project aims at developing a disruptive new type of highly miniaturized autonomous water quality chemical sensor, that can be operated remotely and autonomously, has minimal installation and maintenance requirements, is capable of performing thousands of measurements directly in-situ, in both reagent-based and reagent-less configuration, on a single battery charge. Applications that will greatly benefit from such sensors range from scientific research, to estimating nutrient loads, establishing discharge limits, predicting eutrophication conditions and demonstrating compliance with regulatory reporting requirements. Independently, the drinking water industry has its own requirements for autonomous chemical sensors for monitoring reservoirs and distribution networks, optimizing treatment processes and identifying tank nitrification issues early-on. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to achieve the highest level of miniaturization and functionality attempted in a commercial water quality sensor. The core innovation of this proposed e-CHEM system is in the microfluidic chemical analysis module, combining a novel highly-efficient mixing mechanism to homogenize minute volumes of reagent with the fluid sample with a microfluidic implementation of dual reagent-based and reagent-less chemical measurement capability, the possibility of controlling relevant chemical reactions in-situ via precise on-chip temperature management, and finally the potential of overcoming the important hurdle of bio-fouling via novel surface nano-engineering. The parameters measured will include a selection from: ortho-phosphates, nitrites, nitrates, dissolved organic carbon, total and/or free chlorine, free ammonia, and pH. The system will include bidirectional wireless telemetry to enable automatic alert generation and data transmission to remote servers for visualization, analysis and interpretation. Target accuracy and response times are superior to traditional measurement techniques due to full process automation, elimination of sample degradation and transit times, reduction of human error, and automatic data centralization.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project will be on public health, with the proposed "e-CHEM" solution enabling the monitoring of chemical water quality with high temporal resolution, providing early alerts when quality degrades. The World Health Organization has recognized water chemical safety risk management as essential for ensuring public health. By informing water utilities and end-users early on about problems in the drinking water quality or in the distribution infrastructure, the duration of poor tap water quality episodes can be drastically reduced. For the industrial sector, e-CHEM will measure wastewater contamination, allowing its effective treatment and reuse and limiting fresh source water use particularly in regions affected by drought. e-CHEM will have major commercial impact across multiple industries, minimizing costs, reducing liabilities, and improving health. This SBIR Phase II project proposes to commercialize the e-CHEM analyzer developed and pilot-tested in Phase I to provide a complete data analytics solution for performing water quality monitoring autonomously in critical applications where lack of infrastructure (power, communications), location remoteness, or limited human resources currently impose severe constraints. e-CHEM uses novel reagent-based and reagent-less lab-on-chip sensor technology to continuously quantify multiple water contaminants within a highly-miniaturized instrument, with accuracy and sensitivity levels approaching and even surpassing current laboratory capabilities. This Phase II project will involve a combination of fundamental and applied research aimed at improving the e-CHEM prototype for environmental variations during field operations, optimizing and ruggedizing the system for user operations, and developing machine learning algorithms for data analytics. After full validation of e-CHEM technology for drinking water, the e-CHEM system will also be adapted for harsh environments, such as monitoring of industrial wastewater from unconventional oil-and-gas operations. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.