Description:
Oxygen
monitoring is a critical factor in areas such as aquaculture, water quality and
environmental monitoring, and biomedical research. There is a need for a
commercial dissolved oxygen (DO) sensor system that can monitor DO in still or
flowing aqueous media, operate continuously in the field, not be affected by
environmental factors, and allow for real-time continuous monitoring without any
limitations on data. Currently available sensors cannot meet all of these
criteria.
Description
Michigan
State University’s invention is a method for 24/7 monitoring of dissolved oxygen
in any aqueous media. The sensor’s performance is not affected by environmental
factors including salinity, pH, temperature, phosphates, carbon dioxide, and
biological waste, and the technique allows for real-time, continuous monitoring
of dissolved oxygen without any limitation on the number of data points
collected.
The
sensor system consists of three principal components: (1) senor probe with
proprietary sensing film, (2) fluorometer to generate and measure the optical
signal that is proportional to the dissolved oxygen concentration, and (3) a
laptop to control the hardware and collect data. An alarm system monitors the
health of the entire sensor system and allows the user to set lower and upper
bounds on the dissolved oxygen level. All aspects of the user interface can be
controlled remotely by commercial cell phone network, and alerts can be sent if
levels fall outside set bounds.
Benefits
·
Simultaneously
monitors multiple performance metrics: Competing DO technologies cannot
simultaneously monitor all of these data points.
·
User-friendly,
automated data collection system: User interface analyzes data in real time,
transmits data via cell phone, and provides cell phone alerts.
·
Demonstrated
applicability for aquaculture: The system has been operated outdoors through
the summer, fall, winter, and spring seasons at a commercial fish farm and a
state hatchery.
Applications
The
system has applications for various industries, including
·
Aquaculture
·
Water quality/environmental management
·
Bioreactors for the pharmaceutical or chemical
industry
·
Food and beverage industries, such as fermentors for the
brewing industry
·
Biomedical research
·
Medical devices
IP Protection
Status
Patent
pending
