Technological projects portfolio
MICADO
System for checking water quality
Investment: €537k
Scope: Agriculture and Environment
Scientific field(s): Physics-Chemistry and Optics / Mathematics, Information and communications science and tech. (STIC) and nanotechnology
Institution(s): École polytechnique - CNRS - Université Gustave Eiffel
Development: Technology to be marketed
USE CASES
In an environmental protection context, the major issue of water quality must be taken into consideration.
In the water analysis market, technologies that can be used on site and provide real time data, are still few and far between and very costly. It is difficult to clearly differentiate between the various chemical species present in water.
A combination of mono-parameter chemical sensors are generally used, which poses a number of integration problems.
As a result, the price of the sensors available on the market is often around 10,000 euros a piece. The MICADO project aims to find a solution to this problem.
ADVANTAGES
The technology that has been developed can be used to manufacture multi-parameter sensors to analyze water and would cost about 1/10th the cost of conventional technologies.
It is based on an innovative sensitive element: an ink mainly made of organic semiconducting polymers. The sensor simultaneously measures several physical-chemical analytes in the water.
The versatility of this technology would expand the range of detectable pollutants beyond chloride, nitrates and heavy metals, providing a more specific response to the various needs of actors in the water quality diagnostic sector.
APPLICATIONS
The technology will be used in situ as a measurement device to monitor the quality of drinking water, surface water and (natural and artificial) water reservoirs.