INESC TEC has led a consortium – which includes  CIMAR – Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental – , the  CIQ FCUP – Centro de Investigação em Química at the University of Porto, and the University of Pécs in Hungary –, which was created to develop new sensors for real time water quality monitoring in hyper intensive aquaculture systems. In systems of stackable shallow raceway tanks with water recirculation there are more fish present in less water. Therefore, it is necessary to accurately and constantly monitor parameters, including dissolved CO2 and O2, pH, nitrates and phosphates.

Currently used tools do not respond to the industry’s needs. However, these types of tools are critical to reduce the investment risk and to increase fish production and welfare. In order to make these tools capable of responding to these needs, they should be equipped with more effective optical sensors. New optical sensors were developed by the consortium for this purpose.

In this project, optical fibre interferometric platforms were combined with sensitive polymeric membranes to enable the detection of different analyte concentrations with the same instruments. The target analyte in the project is dissolved CO2, but the technology will evolve towards the detection of multiple parameters to determine water quality.

Developed in 2 years (2011-2012).