Proceedings

Nutrients such as phosphate are central in many environmental processes within the marine environment, including several microbial, plant and animal metabolic processes. A cost effective sensor for the detection of phosphate in natural waters was developed as part of the COMMON SENSE FP7 project. The phosphate sensor is based on a combination of microfluidic analytical systems, colorimetric reagent chemistry, low-cost LED-based optical detection and wireless communications. The phosphate sensor has a limit of detection of 0.05uM, this limit of detection was achieved by the use of a pulse width modulated LED and a photodiode detector on an optical microfluidic chip.

The system is designed in a modular fashion to be deployed on varying platforms such as boats, mooring etc.

The sensing platform has been tested with a number of deployments in areas of environmental interest such as Ny-Aselund Svalbard on the Italian Artic Base, Sardinia Italy, CNR Italy testing Lagoon and the Mediterranean onboard the RV Minvera Uno. These deployments lead to further ruggedizing of the system.