This SBIR Phase I project will focus on the creation of a usable optical sensor for toxicity detection in waste water.
The broader/commercial impact of the project will be to transform the wastewater industry through increased automation and accuracy.
Lisa Jackson, the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, has established "Seven Priorities for EPA's Future;" one of them is to protect America's waters. An easy-to-maintain, stand-alone, continuous monitor that can detect a wide range of toxins could be used to provide an early warning of water contamination in virtually any aqueous medium, including inflows to municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants, outfalls into natural waterways, and even drinking water supplies. Intelligent Optical Systems (IOS) is developing a stand-alone instrument, based on optical biosensors, that will provide an in situ and continuous early warning of toxicity in water supplies. The monitor is designed to detect influent toxicity in order to protect the activated sludge used in the biological process in wastewater treatment plants. The stand-alone monitor can also be used to provide an early warning of toxic effluents discharged to natural waterways. The key innovation that makes this possible is the use of optical biosensors; the biosensors consist of live bacteria immobilized in a porous polymer support whose metabolism is optically monitored via an integrated oxygen sensitive film. The bacterial respiration in each biosensor is measured in real time through optical fibers that interrogate the fluorescent emission from the sensor’s optical oxygen sensitive film. Because the oxygen uptake rate changes in the presence of toxins, the biosensors can immediately detect substances that degrade the biobed health of wastewater treatment plants. The system can easily incorporate several biosensors colonized with different microorganisms (a novel feature of our approach) in order to detect a wide spectrum of toxins, and provide several levels of sensitivity. Phase I has conclusively demonstrated the feasibility of developing the proposed stand-alone toxicity monitor. Moreover, constructing the Phase I model system has put IOS well along the path to the Phase II development of a field-deployable toxicity monitor prototype. Biosensors colonized with three different biomasses have been used in the system, and the detection of four different types of contaminants often found in wastewater has been shown.
